May 30 — The Incredible Story of Saint Joan of Arc: The Girl Who Led an Army and Died in the Flames

Discover the story of Saint Joan of Arc — Saint of the Day May 30 — the peasant girl from Domrémy who heard the voice of heaven, led an army to save France, and died at the stake calling the name of Jesus with her last breath. Born around 1412 to a farming family in northeastern France, Joan began hearing voices at the age of thirteen, which she identified as Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret. At seventeen, she convinced the Dauphin Charles to give her a place in his army, rode to the besieged city of Orléans, and helped liberate it in just four days. She stood beside Charles at his coronation in Reims on July 17, 1429, fulfilling the mission her voices had given her. Captured by Burgundian forces in May 1430, sold to the English, and tried by a Church court in Rouen, she was burned alive on May 30, 1431, at nineteen years old. A retrial in 1456 declared her innocent, and she was canonized by Pope Benedict XV on May 16, 1920. On this May 30 — Saint of the Day, Saint Joan of Arc reminds us that God does not call the powerful but the willing, that faith carried without compromise can reshape the destiny of nations, and that no voice raised for heaven is ever silenced by fire. — SOURCES: Jules Quicherat, Procès de condamnation et de réhabilitation de Jeanne d'Arc (1841–1849) Régine Pernoud, Joan of Arc: By Herself and Her Witnesses (1966) Pope Benedict XV, Canonization of Saint Joan of Arc (May 16, 1920) W.S. Scott, The Trial of Joan of Arc (1956) Butler's Lives of the Saints, May 30 Catholic Encyclopedia, "St. Joan of Arc" (newadvent.org) — BIOGRAPHIES OF THE SAINTS — A documentary series on the lives of the saints. #SaintJoanOfArc #SaintOfTheDay #CatholicDocumentary