Joan of Arc (1412 - 1431):
Whoops!!! We just burned a saint!
Background: Directed by visions of Saints Catherine and Margaret, and
of the archangel Michael, telling her to drive the English out of France, a
peasant girl known as Joan of Arc became a legendary military hero of France.
Unfortunately, Joan's lucky voices gave her some bad advice and she was captured by the Burgundians (part of France loyal to
England), then sold to the English. Now Joan was on her own, for her king,
Charles VII, made no effort to save the headstrong warrior who had given him his
crown. Ultimately, Joan's doom was sealed when in a savvy political move, the
English avoided making Joan a martyr by turning her over to a pro-English
ecclesiastical court of the Roman Catholic Church to be tried as a heretic and a
witch. Joan’s trial was held in Rouen, France, under the
protection of the English. Still on her own during the three month trial, Joan
gave a stunning defense of her actions, but the Church only heard what they
wanted to hear (i.e., the headstrong blabbering of a heretic witch who refused
to accept the "error-free" authority of the Church over that of her
voices).
Joan's Journey to Sainthood:
1431 - The "heretic witch" known as Joan of Arc is burned at
the stake in Rouen.
1450-1456 - Joan's posthumous retrial.
1456 - Pope Calixtus III nullified the 1431 verdict.
1869 - Canonization proceedings begun.
1920 - Joan of Arc’s reversal of fortune culminated in her being
canonized as a saint of the Catholic Church as decreed by Pope Benedict XV.
