St. Joan of Arc May 30 1412-31  The daughter of Jacques d'Arc, a peasant farmer, she was the youngest of five children and was born on January 6 at Domremy, France. A pious child, she was only thirteen when she experienced the first of her supernatural visions, which she described as a voice accompanied by a blaze of light. As time went on she identified the voices she heard as those of St. Michael, St. Catherine, St. Margaret, and others who she claimed revealed to her that her mission in life was to save France by aiding the Dauphin. Laughed at by Robert de Baudricourt, the French commander at Vaucouleurs, at first, his skepticism was overcome when her prophecies came true and the French were defeated in the Battle of Herrings outside Orleans in February 1429. He sent her to the Dauphin. Son of the insane King Charles VI, he had been kept from the French throne by the British in the Hundred Years' War and preferred the life of pleasure he had been pursuing since his father's death in 1422 to taking on the responsibilities of kingship if he mounted the throne. When she recognized him despite a disguise he had assumed and gave him a secret signal that he recognized, he was convinced of her mission. After an examination by theologians at Poitiers cleared her of all suspicion of heresy, she was allowed to lead an expedition to relieve besieged Orleans, and in a suit of white armor, she led her forces to victory. She followed this with a great victory over the British on June 18 and the capture of Troyes shortly after. Finally, on July 17, 1429, Charles was crowned as King Charles VII at Rheims, with Joan at his side. She failed in an attempt to capture Paris in August, and in the spring of 1430, she set out on a new campaign. She was captured on May 24 near Compiegne and sold to the British by John of Luxemburg on November 21. Charged with heresy and witchcraft before the court of Bishop Pierre Cauchon, her visions were declared to be of diabolical origin. She was tricked into signing a form of recantation on May 23, 1431, but when she again dressed in male attire, which she had agreed to abandon, she was condemned as a lapsed heretic and burned to death at the stake at Rouen on May 30, 1431, the victim of her enemies' determination to destroy her. A court appointed by Pope Callistus III found her innocent in 1456 and she was canonized in 1920. She is the second patron of France and is known as the Maid of Orleans. VIEW IMAGES OF THE MARTYR: SEPIA ENTERING ORLEANS STAINED GLASS 1 ROSETTI IMAGE 1 ROSETTI IMAGE 2 STATUE 1 STATUE 2 STAINED GLASS 2 FAMOUS INGRES IMAGE: SAME AS THE LITANY IMAGE, BUT LARGER LITANY OF ST. JOAN OF ARC ST. JOAN DIRECTORY FROM THE SAINTS DIRECTORY: DETAILED BIO SKETCH WITH MORE IMAGES Contact Us HOME-------------------------------------SAINTS www.catholictradition.org/joan.htm