The St. Joan of Arc Chapel is a Roman Catholic chapel located on the campus of Marquette University in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. It was dedicated to St. Joan of Arc on 26th May 1966 after it had been moved from its previous location on Long Island in New York.
Originally named “Chapelle de St. Martin de Seyssuel”, the chapel was built over several generations in the French village of Chasse-sur-Rhône, south of Lyon. It is estimated that the building was erected around the 15th century but abandoned after the French Revolution when it then fell into ruin.
According to a sign on display at the original site in France, St. Joan may have visited and prayed at the chapel on 9 March 1429 after meeting King Charles VII of France. Legend claims that St. Joan prayed to a statue of the Virgin Mary while standing on a flat stone which is now behind the altar. Afterwards, she knelt down and kissed the stone, and ever since, the temperature of the stone has been colder than those that surround it.
After World War I, a young architect rediscovered the chapel and negotiated its transfer to the Brookville (New York) home of Gertrude Hill Gavin, the daughter of James J. Hill, best known as the founder of the Great Northern Railway. After Gavin died, her estate passed to Marc B. Rojtman and his wife, Lillian who decided to present the chapel to Marquette University in 1964.
With fascinating history like this, how could you miss this stop right?
