Saint Joan of Arc
May 30
The Maid of Orleans
The year is 1429. A young French peasant girl—only seventeen years
old—is clad in armor and mounted on a war horse. She holds her sword
high in the air. Above her flies the banner of France. Behind her rides
the French army, ready for battle. The young girl’s name is Jeanne
d’Arc.
Joan of Arc, as she is called in English, lived during a time the French
and English fought to control France. In her early teens, Joan said she
heard voices from heaven. The voices urged her to save France.
At first, people laughed at Joan. A young girl lead men in battle?
Impossible! Joan convinced the king to give her command of the French
army. Through her military skill and personal bravery, Joan of Arc freed
the city of Orleans from the English. Joan defeated the English in four
other battles. She was wounded, but went on fighting.
About a year after Joan of Arc first took up the sword, she was
captured. The English threw her into prison and then tried her as a
witch. On May 30, 1431, the English burned her at the stake in the
market place of Rouen.
The Roman Catholic Church declared Joan a saint and honors her on May
30, the day she died. France also remembers this saint and national
heroine at other times. One is a holiday in her honor on the second
Sunday in May—about the time she led the French army to victory at
Orleans and became known forever as the Maid of Orleans.
