Feast day: 30 May
Saint Joan of Arc
Sancta Ioanna Arcensis
A peasant girl who, guided by voices she attributed to Saints Michael, Catherine and Margaret, lifted the siege of Orléans and was burned as a heretic at nineteen, later declared innocent and canonized.
- Born
- c. 1412, Domrémy, Lorraine (France)
- Died
- 30 May 1431, burned at the stake at Rouen
- Canonization
- Beatified 1909 by Saint Pius X; canonized 16 May 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.
- Country
- France
Biography
Voices and mission
Joan was the daughter of farmers in Domrémy during the Hundred Years' War. From about the age of thirteen she reported hearing voices urging her to help the Dauphin Charles. In 1429 she persuaded the garrison of Vaucouleurs to send her to Chinon, was examined by theologians at Poitiers, and rode to Orléans, whose siege was lifted on 8 May 1429. Charles VII was crowned at Reims on 17 July with Joan beside him.
Trial, death and rehabilitation
Captured at Compiègne in 1430 and sold to the English, she was tried at Rouen by a court under Bishop Pierre Cauchon. Denied counsel and an appeal to the Pope, she was condemned and burned on 30 May 1431, calling on the name of Jesus. In 1456 a papal rehabilitation trial ordered by Callixtus III annulled the sentence and declared her innocent.
Timeline
- ~c. 1412 — Born at Domrémy
- 1429 — Relief of Orléans; coronation of Charles VII at Reims
- 1430 — Captured at Compiègne
- 1431 — Condemned and burned at Rouen
- 1456 — Sentence annulled by the rehabilitation trial
- 1920 — Canonized by Benedict XV
Dates marked ~ are traditional or debated among historians.
Symbols
Banner with the names Jesus and Mary — The standard she carried instead of a sword in battle.
Armour and sword — Her military mission in obedience to her voices.
Flames — Her death at the stake.
Virtues & spiritual lessons
Courage, purity, obedience to conscience and forgiveness of her judges. She teaches that fidelity to God can cost everything and still be vindicated by truth.
Importance in the Church
Joan's trial records are among the best documented of the Middle Ages and preserve her own words. She is a patroness of France and a sign that sanctity is not the preserve of the learned or powerful.
Quotes
“I was born for this.”
Reply at her trial, Rouen, 1431
“If I am not in God's grace, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.”
Trial of Condemnation, session of 24 February 1431
Prayers
Prayer to Saint Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, filled with compassion for those who invoke you, obtain for me from Jesus the grace of courage in trial, purity of heart and unshaken fidelity to conscience, that I may serve God faithfully to the end. Amen.
Traditional prayer of French devotion.
Places
Domrémy-la-Pucelle, France — Her birthplace, preserved as a museum and basilica.
Rouen, Place du Vieux-Marché — Site of her execution, marked by a modern church.
Related saints
Entries are drawn from the Roman Martyrology, the General Roman Calendar, canonization records of the Holy See, and the saints' own writings. Where a date, quotation or attribution is uncertain, it is marked as such. (63 saints)