Joan of Arc: A Heroine Among Men

2052 Words5 Pages

Joan of Arc, a well-known Catholic saint and French national heroine, is a figure worthy of historical attention. Born in Domremy, France, sometime around 1412, Joan lived as a peasant with her family on fifty acres of land. At the end of her short life of nineteen years, Joan revealed in a trial that her rise to power in the Anglo-French conflict was due to a series of visions she had as a young girl. These visions, which were religious in nature, helped Joan to turn the Hundred Years War into a religious conflict. Despite her efforts to turn the tide of the war and helping to win a pivotal battle in Orleans, Joan was captured and put on trial for heresy. After a trial that lasted for months, Joan was officially labeled a heretic and burned at the stake in 1431. It would only be centuries later that Joan would gain sainthood in the Catholic church and become formally recognized as a woman of power, even centuries after her death. Joan of Arc’s life can be examined in three distinct parts: her early life’s revelations of religious visions, her entrance into the Hundred Years War as a leader of the French army, and her death as a heretic and eventual entrance to sainthood. The combination of these events convinces observers that Joan was a woman of power ahead of her time, and in each part of her life, Joan took on a role normally expected of men. Joan of Arc thus was a major contributing catalyst for feminist action, serving as a visionary, military hero, and eventual martyr. A look at Joan of Arc’s early life and visions is essential to understanding her early life as a repressed female and unlikely mystic. Author Mary Gordon, in her examination of Joan, writes about an event that took place long before Joan’s visions ... ... middle of paper ... ...iking Penguin, 2000. Introductory Notes to the Trial of (Rehabilitation) Nullification. Trial transcript. From St. Joan of Arc Center. St.Joan of Arc Center. http://www.stjoan-center.com/Trials/null01.html (Accessed March 1, 2011) Joan of Arc. Letter to the King of England, 1429. Letter. From Internet Medieval Sourcebook. Medieval Sourcebook. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/joanofarc.html (Accessed March 19, 2011) Kelly, H. Ansgar. “The Right to Remain Silent: Before and After Joan of Arc.” Speculum. 68:4 (1993): 992-1026. Nider, Johan. Johan Nider: on Joan of Arc. Journal. From Internet Medieval Sourcebook. Medieval Sourcebook. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/nider-stjoan1.html (Accessed March 19, 2011) Wood, Charles T. Joan of Arc and Richard III: Sex, Saints, and Government in the Middle Ages. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Open Document