“One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.”
When Joan of Arc was born in 1412, there was a war going on between the French and the British. However, the war was not the first thing on the mind of a daughter of poor farmers in rural France. Raised by her faithful Catholic mother, Joan was never properly educated, but she was brought up in a deep-rooted faith in God. Society was setting her up to be a wife and a mother from a young age—nothing more and nothing less—but as Joan entered her teenage years, her life began to change.
It started with voices. Joan began hearing them as she accomplished her daily chores. “I was in my 13th year,” she said, “when I heard a voice from God to help me govern my conduct. And the first time I was very much afraid.”
God continued to speak to Joan and she continued to listen, until it became clear that she had a purpose no one could have foreseen: she was going to save France from Britain.
At 18 years old, Joan cut her hair short, dressed as a man and left her village to seek the support of Charles VII, the disinherited heir to the French throne. Underestimated and undermined by the men of the French court, she proved her worth when she picked Charles VII out of a crowd of people while he was in disguise. He gave her an army and sent her to Orleans, which the English had under siege.
Dressed in white armor and riding a white horse, Joan led the French army to victory. Despite taking an arrow to the chest in a battle, she returned to the front to encourage her soldiers forward to drive out the British. In 1429, Joan saw the French crown placed on Charles’ head. There was not a doubt—God was on Joan of Arc’s side.
One year after Joan’s stunning triumph at Orleans, she was captured and handed over to the British. Interrogated and accused of witchcraft and heresy, Joan stood before her tribunal with humility and faith, saying, “You say that you are my judge; I do not know if you are, but take good heed not to judge me ill, because you would put yourself in great peril.” In the face of torture and threats, she could not be broken.
At 19 years old, Joan of Arc was sentenced for heresy and burned at the stake in front of nearly 10 thousand people, but her legacy has survived far beyond her life. Twenty-two years after her execution, the war between France and England was over, and Charles VII was still on the throne. Three years after that, Joan was declared innocent of all charges. In 1920, she was officially canonized as a saint of the Catholic Church.
Nearly 600 years after Joan of Arc’s death, her unrelenting faith and courage is an inspiration to those who are called by God to a higher purpose.