Saint Joan of Arc

Joan was born in Domrémy, in Lorraine, on January 6, 1412, the daughter of peasants. At thirteen she began to say she heard voices. At seventeen she presented herself to the Dauphin of France and told him God had sent her to drive out the English and have him crowned king. It was the worst moment of the Hundred Years’ War: half of France was in English hands, Orléans was under siege, and the Dauphin was a nobody. They gave her armor and men, probably because there was nothing else left to try. In nine days Orléans was freed. In three months the Dauphin was crowned at Reims, with her at his side. The following year, outside Compiègne, she was captured by the Burgundians. John of Luxembourg sold her to the English. The king she had done everything for didn’t lift a finger. She was tried for heresy in Rouen. The record of that trial survives, and you can read it: a nineteen-year-old girl, illiterate, alone, answering for months a court of theologians trying to trip her up. Some of her answers have become famous for how terse and intelligent they are. She was burned alive on May 30, 1431. Twenty-five years later, an inquiry ordered by Callixtus III declared that trial null and void. Benedict XV proclaimed her a saint in 1920, and two years later she became patron saint of France. If your name is Joan, today is your name day.