Saint Joan of Arc

In the spring of 1429 an illiterate peasant girl of about seventeen rode to Orléans with a relief army and a banner of her own. The city was besieged by the English, and the French soldiers inside were demoralized. Nine days after Joan arrived, the English abandoned the siege.

She had been born around 1412 in Domrémy, in northeast France, to a peasant family that owned some land. France was deep in the Hundred Years' War. Joan said later that she was guided by visions of the archangel Michael and of Saints Margaret and Catherine, who told her to help Charles, the heir to the throne, save France from English rule. In 1428 she asked to be taken to him, and in 1429 she reached him at Chinon. Convinced of her devotion and purity, and impressed by the extraordinary gifts she showed, he agreed to let her try an offensive against the English.

After Orléans, Joan urged the French to press their advantage in the Loire campaign, which ended in another decisive victory at Patay. That opened the road to Reims, where Charles was crowned king of France with Joan at his side. These victories lifted French morale and paved the way for the final French success in the war, decades later.

Then her fortunes turned. An attack on Paris in September 1429, in which she was wounded at the city gates, failed, and so did the siege of La Charité in November. The court's trust in her faded. In early 1430 she gathered a company of volunteers to relieve Compiègne, which Burgundians, allies of the English, were besieging. Burgundian troops captured her on 23 May. She tried to escape without success, and in November she was handed over to the English.

She was put on trial at Rouen before Bishop Pierre Cauchon on charges of heresy. The accusations included blasphemy for wearing men's clothes, acting on visions that were demonic, and refusing to submit her words and deeds to the judgment of the Church. She was found guilty and burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, at about nineteen. In 1456 a Church court reviewed the case and overturned the verdict, finding that it had been tainted by deceit and procedural errors. Pope Pius X beatified her in 1909, and Pope Benedict XV canonized her on 16 May 1920. She is a patron saint of France.

Saint Joan of Arc, pray for us.