Saint Joan of Arc

Life story

Joan was born around 1412 at Domrémy, on France's eastern frontier, to a farming family. France was then in the Hundred Years' War, and English and Burgundian forces held much of the country. From about the age of thirteen, Joan said that she heard voices and saw visions urging her to help the dauphin Charles recover his kingdom.

In 1429 she met Charles at Chinon and persuaded him to let her join the army. On 8 May 1429 the French relieved Orléans, where she helped raise the soldiers' morale. After the victory at Patay she escorted Charles to Reims, where he was crowned on 17 July 1429.

In May 1430 Joan was captured by the Burgundians near Compiègne and sold to the English. She was tried at Rouen before a court presided over by Bishop Pierre Cauchon, and condemned as a relapsed heretic. She was burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, aged about nineteen.

In 1456 a retrial, authorised by Pope Callixtus III, annulled the sentence and declared her innocent. Joan was beatified in 1909 and canonised by Benedict XV in 1920. In 1922 Pius XI declared her a secondary patron of France. She is remembered in France as a national heroine, and the records of both her trials, preserved in full, make her one of the best-documented figures of the Middle Ages. Her feast is kept on 30 May, the day of her death, and Orléans still marks the lifting of the siege each year on 8 May.

Works and witness

• Met the dauphin Charles at Chinon in 1429
• Helped relieve Orléans on 8 May 1429
• Escorted Charles VII to his coronation at Reims in July 1429
• Tried and burned at Rouen on 30 May 1431
• Canonised in 1920

Patron of

France

Saints from the same country

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint Louis IX of France, Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Vincent de Paul

References

• Martyrologium Romanum
• Procès de condamnation de Jeanne d'Arc (trial records, 1431)
• Procès en nullité de la condamnation de Jeanne d'Arc (rehabilitation trial, 1456)

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.