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Joan of Arc

The warrior maid


In 1425 when France was occupied by the English, a thirteen-year-old French peasant girl began to have visions and hear 'voices'. She became convinced that God was urging her to raise an army to drive the English forces out of France. At the age of seventeen she begged, cajoled, and blustered the authorities until at last she was allowed to see the uncrowned King Charles VII.
Of course, no one took her seriously at first. But she insisted that she was only voicing God's instructions. She was very persuasive, and did seem to have great spiritual presence. Charles had been beaten so often that he had nothing to lose. So he put Joan the Maid at the head of an army going to the help of Orleans, which was being besieged by the English.
This noble young woman, devout, chaste, simple and brave, managed to inspire the army with the belief that God was on their side. She led an attack on the English forces at Orleans and beat them. During the next few weeks the English were clumsily led and her army captured several more towns. She arranged for Charles to be crowned at Rheims.
But the English were not her only enemies. The Catholic Church detested her because she claimed to speak directly to God without their help. This was a dangerous thing to say in those days, when belief in witchcraft and sorcery was so widespread. When she was captured in a battle at Compiegne the English and the Church conspired to try her for heresy. She was put to death by burning at the age of nineteen.
But her inspiration lived on. The French authorities (and the English too) were ashamed they had burned her. She became a heroine of France, and in 1909 was declared a saint.