Called the Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc is celebrated today as a saint and a French national hero. Joan reported hearing voices at a young age, voices she claimed to belong to St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret. At the age of 16, she responded to the voices urging her to help the dauphin, Charles VII, who was kept from the throne during the Hundred Years War. She confronted Charles in Chinon and, after convincing him of her divine task, was given troops to fight the English. She and her armies took a number of English posts and Charles agreed to accept the crown. After a failed strike on Paris, Joan was captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English, who handed her over to the ecclesiastical court at Rouen. With no aid from Charles, Joan was tried as a heretic and was eventually burned at the stake on May 30, 1431, in Rouen. Charles enacted a retrial in 1456, which annulled the findings of the original court. Joan was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920.
