Jeanne dArc
Joan of Arc, Saint, in French, Jeanne dArc , called the Maid of Orlans, national heroine and patron saint of France, who united the nation at a critical hour and decisively turned the Hundred Years War in Frances favor.
Joan was born of peasant parentage in Domrmy . When she was 13 years old, she believed she heard celestial voices. As they continued, sometimes accompanied by visions, she became convinced that they belonged to St. Michael and to the early martyrs St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Margaret. Early in 1429, during the Hundred Years War, when the English were about to capture Orlans, the voices exhorted her to help the Dauphin, later Charles VII, king of France. Charles, because of both internal strife and the English claim to the throne of France, had not yet been crowned king. Joan succeeded in convincing him that she had a divine mission to save France. A board of theologians approved her claims, and she was given troops to command. Dressed in armor and carrying a white banner that represented God blessing the French royal emblem, the fleur-de-lis, she led the French to a decisive victory over the English.
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