"I place trust in God, my creator, in all things; I love Him with all my heart."
"If I be not in a state of grace, I pray God place me in it; if I be in it, I pray God keep me so."
"I am the drum on which God is beating out his message."
"It is better to be alone with God. His friendship will not fail me, nor His counsel, nor His love. In His strength, I will dare and dare and dare until I die."
"Act, and God will act."
"I die for speaking the language of the angels."
c. 1412 – 30 May 1431
Joan was born to a propertied peasant family at Domrémy in northeast France. In 1428, she requested to be taken to Charles VII, later testifying that she was guided by visions from the archangel Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine to help him save France from English domination. Convinced of her devotion and purity, Charles sent Joan, who was about seventeen years old, to Orléans as part of a relief army. She arrived at the city in April 1429, wielding her banner and bringing hope to the demoralized French army. Nine days after her arrival, the English abandoned the siege. Joan encouraged the French to aggressively pursue the English during the Loire Campaign, which culminated in another decisive victory at Patay, opening the way for the French army to advance on Reims unopposed, where Charles was crowned as the king of France with Joan at his side. These victories boosted French morale, paving the way for their final triumph in the Hundred Years' War several decades later.
After Charles's coronation, Joan participated in the unsuccessful siege of Paris in September 1429 and the failed siege of La Charité in November. Her role in these defeats reduced the court's faith in her. In early 1430, Joan organized a company of volunteers to relieve Compiègne, which had been besieged by the Burgundians—French allies of the English. She was captured by Burgundian troops on 23 May. After trying unsuccessfully to escape, she was handed to the English in November. She was put on trial by Bishop Pierre Cauchon on accusations of heresy, which included blaspheming by wearing men's clothes, acting upon visions that were demonic, and refusing to submit her words and deeds to the judgment of the church. She was declared guilty and burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, aged about nineteen.
Joan later testified that when she was thirteen, c. 1425, a figure she identified as Saint Michael surrounded by angels appeared to her in the garden.[44] After this vision, she said she wept because she wanted them to take her with them.[45] Throughout her life, she had visions of St. Michael,[46] a patron saint of the Domrémy area who was seen as a defender of France.[47] She stated that she had these visions frequently and that she often had them when the church bells were rung.
During Joan's youth, a prophecy circulating in the French countryside, based on the visions of Marie Robine of Avignon, promised an armed virgin would come forth to save France.[54] Another prophecy, attributed to Merlin, stated that a virgin carrying a banner would put an end to France's suffering.[55] Joan implied she was this promised maiden, reminding the people around her that there was a saying that France would be destroyed by a woman but would be restored by a virgin.
During the trial, Joan showed great control.[229] She induced her interrogators to ask questions sequentially rather than simultaneously, refer back to their records when appropriate, and end the sessions when she requested.[230] Witnesses at the trial were impressed by her prudence when answering questions.[231] For example, in one exchange she was asked if she knew she was in God's grace. The question was meant as a scholarly trap, as church doctrine held that nobody could be certain of being in God's grace. If she answered positively, she would have been charged with heresy; if negatively, she would have confessed her own guilt. Joan avoided the trap by stating that if she was not in God's grace, she hoped God would put her there, and if she was in God's grace then she hoped she would remain so.[232] One of the court notaries at her trial later testified that the interrogators were stunned by her answer.[233] To convince her to submit, Joan was shown the instruments of torture. When she refused to be intimidated, Cauchon met with about a dozen assessors (clerical jurors) to vote on whether she should be tortured. The majority decided against it.[
When Cauchon asked about her visions, Joan stated that the voices had blamed her for abjuring out of fear, and that she would not deny them again. As Joan's abjuration had required her to deny her visions, this was sufficient to convict her of relapsing into heresy and to condemn her to death.
At about the age of nineteen, Joan was executed on 30 May 1431. In the morning, she was allowed to receive the sacraments despite the court process requiring they be denied to heretics.[256] She was then taken to Rouen's Vieux-Marché (Old Marketplace), where she was publicly read her sentence of condemnation.[257] At this point, she should have been turned over to the appropriate authority, the bailiff of Rouen, for secular sentencing, but instead was delivered directly to the English[258] and tied to a tall plastered pillar for execution by burning.[259] She asked to view a cross as she died, and was given one by an English soldier made from a stick, which she kissed and placed next to her chest.[260] A processional crucifix was fetched from the church of Saint-Saveur. She embraced it before her hands were bound, and it was held before her eyes during her execution.[261] After her death, her remains were thrown into the Seine River.[262]