Joan of Arc

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1882) (link)

Feast Day May 30

Patron of France, Soldiers, Prisoners, Women in the Military

Situations Courage, Military Service, Persecution

Professions Prisoners, Soldiers, Women Soldiers

Saint Joan of Arc was a French peasant girl who, guided by heavenly visions, led the French army to decisive victories during the Hundred Years’ War. Born around 1412, she helped Charles VII secure his coronation at Reims. Captured by the Burgundians and handed to the English, she was tried for heresy and burned at the stake in 1431 at age nineteen. She was canonized in 1920.