• Joan of Arc, (Jeanne d’Arc) nicknamed “The Maid of Orléans” (la Pucelle) was a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic Saint.

• She was born at Domremy in Champagne, probably on January 6, 1412 and died at Rouen, May 30, 1431.

• Joan was born the daughter of Jacques d’Arc and Isabelle Romée. Her parents owned about 20 hectares of land and her father supplemented his farming work with a minor position as a village official, collecting taxes and heading the local watch.

• She claimed divine guidance in leading the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years’ War, which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII.

• She was captured by the Burgundians, sold to the English, tried by an ecclesiastical court, and burned at the stake when she was 19 years old.

• Twenty-five years after the execution, Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, pronounced her innocent and declared her a martyr.

• Joan of Arc was beatified in 1909 and canonised in 1920. She is – along with St Denis, St Martin of Tours, St Louis IX, and St Theresa of Lisieux – one of the patron saints of France.