Joan’s mother was a deeply religious woman, and she planted the Catholic values in her daughter, which would have a crucial impact on the rest of her life.

⬅ Joan was the daughter of a farmer and grew up in a small town where she watched over animals as a child.

With their beautiful supernatural voices, they told Joan that she had been chosen to drive the English out of France and make sure that Charles would be crowned king in the traditional cathedral of Reims. The cathedral at this time was deep inside enemy borders.

The teenager had seen a miracle and knew what she had to do. She needed to deliver the news to the authorities, but who would listen to an uneducated farm girl? She had no idea that Dauphin Charles would be more than willing to listen to her. For him, the war was practically lost already in any case. He had lost his legacy and the right to claim his throne upon the signing of a peace treaty in 1420. Charles was becoming desperate, and Joan’s sign from above could be the answer to all of his prayers.

Then they sent her and a small group of men to the attacked city. Thanks to the combination of Joan’s military tactics, courage, and maybe a little luck, they were able to drive the English out despite Joan suffering a  throat injury. The attack ended less than ten days later on 8 May 1429.

She wouldn’t give up so easily and tried to escape several times, once even jumping out of the tower and falling twenty meters straight down into a soft and dry ditch. Joan miraculously survived without any major injuries, but she was captured once again and taken to a more secure place. After months of negotiations, the Burgundians sold Joan to the English for 10,000 pounds. This was a huge amount of money, and she was then put in prison, causing a fuss among the people.

As soon as Joan was in enemy hands, they worked quickly to denounce her. The young woman had humiliated them on the battlefield, and many also believed that she was allied with a higher power. But was it God or the devil?

The first thing they checked was whether or not she was a virgin. She was, so they couldn’t charge her as a witch. The prosecution was only made up of English and Burgundian priests supported by the Faculty of Theology at the University of Paris. Not surprisingly, the priests wanted to put her in prison for being possessed by the devil. The young woman had gained so much support that she was a threat to the entire religious power system. This folk hero had to be eliminated.

This made the authorities even more determined to get rid of her once and for all. They threatened to kill her on the spot to scare her into signing a confession (of heresy) which she couldn’t read. But heresy could only be punishable by death if it happened more than once. Therefore Joan was sentenced to life in jail while the authorities considered their next move.

The church actually allowed women to wear men’s clothing in certain circumstances, like Joan’s, but her prison guards weren’t as tolerant. Not even the first person to support her, King Charles VII, would help her. Instead, he distanced himself and was afraid that anything that connected him to her could damage his authority. Joan had no allies left, and on 29 May 1431, she was sentenced to death.

She was executed the next day.

Joan was burnt three times to make sure  that her body was completely destroyed. When the flames finally burnt out, there was nothing but ashes left of the young woman. Some have, however, claimed that Joan’s heart mysteriously remained intact. Her ashes were thrown into the Seine so that her followers wouldn’t have anything or anywhere they could go on pilgrimage.

Today, Joan of Arc is a national hero in France. She was a young woman with strong religious beliefs and greatly supported by the people. The tragic events made her a political target in the power struggle of the time. She was announced a saint in 1920, the highest honor that anyone can get from the Catholic church. She is a legendary martyr that is still honored today, almost 600 years after her death. 

Even so, it was the efforts of two bishops from Orléans in the 1800s that helped Joan become a saint. In 1869, Felix Dupanloup (the bishop of Orléans) and eleven other bishops presented her candidature for becoming a saint to Pope Pius IX. The case got international attention.

In 1876 the new bishop of Orléans decided that they would find out if Joan met the criteria for sainthood. She did, and so they began the time-consuming process of making her a saint, which finally resulted in Joan becoming a saint in 1920.

Thousands of people gathered in the luxuriously decorated St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican to witness the ceremony, including important leaders from all over Europe. Her sainthood was celebrated all over the continent, including Westminster Cathedral. The French president announced with joy that Joan’s sainthood had at long last finalized what was left of Joan’s mission, bringing England and France together.

Joan of Arc is celebrated every year on May 30th, the date of her execution. Joan’s memory is kept alive all over France and the rest of the world with her image being on coins and Joan being a common motif in art and sculpture. Her legacy is a testimony to heroism and loyalty, even when things seem at their darkest.