St Joan of Arc, the “Maid of Orleans”, is one of history’s greatest heroines. A mystic who led an army into battle at the age of 17 after receiving heavenly messages from Ss Michael, Margaret and Catherine, her intervention in the Hundred Years’ War came at a moment which proved pivotal in the liberation of France from English domination. So she was punished with a show trial and by burning her as a witch in the market place in Rouens in 1431. She was just 19 at the time.
Joan was canonised in 1920 and is a patron saint of the French – effectively their St George. Pope Benedict XVI, preaching about her life in 2011, declared her to be not only one of the “strong women” who “fearlessly bore the great light of the Gospel in the complex events of history” but said that she was also a person like “the holy women who stayed on Calvary, close to the Crucified Jesus and to Mary his Mother, while the Apostles had fled and Peter himself had denied him three times”. From a Roman Pontiff, it is difficult to imagine higher praise for any woman than this.
