Joan of Arc [memorial] b. January 6, 1412 d. May 30, 1431 Roman Catholic Saint, French Military hero. Born Jehanne d'Arc in the small French village of Domrémy-la-Pucelle in the present day department of the Vosges, she was the 4th of five children born to Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée. Jeanne was devoutly religious as a child, and in early adolescence began having visitations from St. Michael, St. Margaret and St. Catherine. Around age 15 her visions prompted her to seek out Charles, the dauphin of France, and assist him in ascending to the throne...[Read More] (Bio by: Paul A. Laguerre) Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, Paris, Paris, Ile-de-France, France
Léonin b. 1135 d. 1201 Composer. The first major Western composer known to us by name, he was a leading light of the Notre Dame or Parisian School. He was hailed as a master of organum, the earliest form of polyphonic (multi-voiced) music, in which a second melodic line was added to traditional plainchant. Léonin compiled and contributed to the original version of the "Magnus Liber Organi" ("Great Book of Organum", c. 1175), the most important single collection of Medieval vocal works. It is a huge body of two-part...[Read More] (Bio by: Robert Edwards) Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, Paris, Paris, Ile-de-France, France
Lustiger, Jean-Marie Cardinal b. September 17, 1926 d. August 5, 2007 Roman Catholic Cardinal. He was the first Jew elevated to the Sacred College in several hundred years. Born Aaron Lustiger to a non-observant Ashkenazic family that had emmigrated from Poland a few years earlier, he first encountered the anti-Semitism he was to spend his life fighting in school and on an early visit to Germany; with the Nazi occupation of Paris his family left their business and relocated to Orleans in 1939. Somewhere around age 12 he found a Protestant Bible in the home of a...[Read More] (Bio by: Bob Hufford) Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, Paris, Paris, Ile-de-France, France
Pérotin b. 1160 d. 1238 Composer. The greatest representative of the Medieval period's Notre Dame School. He is one of the few members of that mysterious group known to us by name, and the only one to whom compositions can be attributed with confidence. Pérotin revolutionized Western music by introducing four-voice polyphony in his masterpieces "Viderunt omnes" (1198) and "Sederunt principes" (1199), and in "Mors" (c. 1200), an adaptation of the Easter Week chant "Alleluia V. Cristus resurgens". Before him music was...[Read More] (Bio by: Robert Edwards) Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, Paris, Paris, Ile-de-France, France
Vierne, Louis [memorial] b. October 8, 1870 d. June 2, 1937 Composer, Organist. He was one of the greatest organ virtuosos of his time, and his music for that instrument marks the culmination of the French Romantic organ tradition. The son of a newspaper editor from Poitiers, France, Louis Victor Jules Vierne was born virtually blind from congenital cataracts. At age six he underwent two operations that partially restored his vision, and he was mentored in music by his uncle, organist Charles Colin. After studying with Cesar Franck and Charles-Marie...[Read More] (Bio by: Robert Edwards) Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, Paris, Paris, Ile-de-France, France
b. January 6, 1412 d. May 30, 1431