Jeanne d’Arc

(ca. 1412– 1431) nicknamed ‘The Maid of Orléans’ is a national heroine of France and a Catholic saint. Jeanne d’Arc, a peasant girl, born in eastern France, asserted that she had visions from God that instructed her to recover her homeland from English domination. The Dauphin Charles sent her to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the dismissive attitude of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in only nine days. She then led the French army to several important victories, which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII in Reims, thus settling the disputed succession to the throne.

The Burgundians captured Jeanne d’Arc a few months later and sold her to the English. An ecclesiastical court tried her with as result that she was burned at the stake, when she was only 19 years old. Twenty-five years after the execution, Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, pronounced her innocent and declared her a martyr. She was canonized in 1920. Along with St. Denis, St. Martin of Tours, St. Louis IX, and St. Theresa of Lisieux, she is one of the patron saints of France.