Description

St. Joan of Arc was given mystical visions of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret, Joan was told she was to be the savior of France and to go present herself to Charles, drive out France’s enemies and get him crowned as king.

She managed to convince Charles of her mission and was sent out with the army, marching into battle carrying the banner. While she never killed anyone in battle, and always deferred to the commands of the noblemen in charge, they in turn attributed many of the victories due to her advice which they accepted as Divinely inspired.

On two occasions she was wounded in battle – once taking an arrow to her shoulder/neck and at another time a crossbow bolt to the leg. In her last battle she was thrown from her horse and captured by the English.

Over the course of months she was put on trial in England that blatantly broke many laws of the time, and later many of those involved admitted that transcripts were altered and the truth was conveniently ignored when it suited them.  Eventually she was condemned to be burned at the stake in 1431.

Twenty years later, the Church opened a retrial to see if she was justly condemned, and in 1456 they declared her innocent. Even so it wasn’t until 1909 that she was beatified, and 1920 when she was declared a Saint.