Joan of Arc A Leader of so many

Joan of Arc a young girl who lived during the 1400s. She was nicknamed "The Maid of Orleans" and was a heroine of France as well as a Roman Catholic Saint. Born to a peasant family Joan believed she was gifted with visions of saints that would instruct her to support Charles VII. France at that time was under English domination Charles would send Joan to help take Orleans back for the French At the age of 18 she would be captured by the English and put on trial and found guilty on a variety of charges. On May 30 1431 when Joan was still a teenager she was burned at the stake.

In 1456 the court authorized by Pope Callixtus III would examine the trial of Joan and find the charges against false and pronounce her innocent declaring her a martyr. She would become a symbol of the Catholic League and in 1803 be declared a national symbol of France as declared by Napoleon Bonaparte. Joan of Arc is one of the nine secondary patron saints of France and remains a popular figure in literature, painting, sculpture and other cultural works since the time of her death.

— Stephen Richey
The people who came after her in the five centuries since her death tried to make everything of her: demonic fanatic, spiritual mystic, naive and tragically ill-used tool of the powerful, creator and icon of modern popular nationalism, adored heroine, saint. She insisted, even when threatened with torture and faced with death by fire, that she was guided by voices from God. Voices or no voices, her achievements leave anyone who knows her story shaking his head in amazed wonder.

The Joan of Arc parade kicked of the Carnival season tonight.