Joan of Arc is perhaps one of the most influential women in Christian history. The Hundred Years War between France and England was fought over control of France. Convinced that the Archangel Michael told her to fight the English, Joan from the Orleans district joined the fight. She was eventually captured and brought to “trial” by the local bishop and sentenced to be burned at the stake. On May 30, 1431, she walked to the town square and shouted “Jesus!” as she took her last breath. She was only nineteen. Twenty-five years later, Pope Callixtus III had her trial re-examined, and he deemed her an innocent martyr. She was canonized as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church in 1909.
