Saint Joan of Arc

Joan was born around 1412 at Domrémy, a village in eastern France, the daughter of a farmer. She could not read or write. France was then in the depths of the Hundred Years’ War: the English and their Burgundian allies held Paris and much of the north, and the Dauphin Charles had not even been crowned.

At about thirteen Joan began to hear voices, which she said were those of Saint Michael, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret. They told her to be good and to go to church, and in time they told her to go to the Dauphin and drive the English out of France. In 1429, at seventeen, she persuaded a local commander to send her to Charles at Chinon. She convinced him, was examined by theologians, and was given armour and a place with the army.

She rode with a banner bearing the names Jesus and Mary. In May 1429 the siege of Orléans was lifted within days of her arrival. Victories followed, and on 17 July she stood beside Charles as he was crowned at Reims. In May 1430 she was captured at Compiègne by the Burgundians, who sold her to the English.

At Rouen a Church court favourable to the English tried her for heresy. Alone and without counsel, she answered her judges with courage and wit. Asked whether she was in the grace of God, she said: “If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God keep me there.” She was condemned and burned in the marketplace on 30 May 1431, calling on the name of Jesus. In 1456 a papal commission declared the trial null and her innocent. She was canonized in 1920.