Joan of ArcPrint Page

The sculpture commemorates Joan of Arc. 

Joan of Arc (Jeanne D'Arc, l. c. 1412-1431 CE) was a medieval peasant who, claiming to receive visions from God, turned the tide of the Hundred Years' War in favour of a French victory. She was famously martyred for standing by her claim of divine inspiration and later canonized as a saint.

She was born in Domremy, France to a peasant farmer but, at the age of 13, received a revelation while standing in her father's garden that she should lead the French to victory over the English and ensure that Charles, the dauphin (Charles VII of France, r. 1422-1461), was crowned at the traditional site of Rheims.

Joan succeeded in lifting the Siege of Orleans in 1429 and Charles was crowned at Rheims in July of the same year following the Loire Campaign. Joan was captured by the Burgundian allies of the English in 1430 and sold to them. The English could not prosecute a woman who claimed she was serving God but could not allow even the suggestion she was telling the truth because that would mean that God was on the French side of the conflict. They finally convicted her of being a relapsed heretic and burned her at the stake in May 1431.

The trial of Joan of Arc was reviewed as early as 1452, found to be invalid, and Joan was exonerated and proclaimed a martyr in 1456.  Early in 1920 the Catholic Church in Rome had authoritatively declared that Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, who had been burned at the stake five centuries ago, was entitled to be called St Joan of Arc.  

St Joan of Arc is the patroness of soldiers and of France.

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