Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc (1412-1431)

In modern times she is known as Joan of Arc or Jeanne d’Arc, but during her life she was called Jeannette or Jeanne, and the name she herself used was Jehanne la Pucelle (Joan the Maid). She lived in the fifteenth century, during the later years of the Hundred Years War, when England, in alliance with Burgundy occupied most of what is now modern France.

After hearing the voices of Saints Catherine, Margaret, and Michael, Joan took an oath of chastity and faithfully followed her vocation. At age seventeen, she led the French army of the crown prince Charles VII to several victories against the English, which brought him to the throne.

She was then captured, tried and convicted of heresy by an English-controlled church. Joan was only nineteen years old when she was burned at the stake. Twenty-four years later, she was proclaimed innocent in a rehabilitation trial. Finally, in the twentieth century, the Vatican declared her a saint.