Joan of Arc was a teenage peasant girl who was sent by God to save her nation,
France, from a foreign invader. She was prompted by words from the saints that she heard, which would continue during her life. Her life shows how God often looks upon those who are least in the world’s eyes with great favor. With extraordinary ability and leadership she won great victories against the English invaders. Captured at the end, she was convicted in a show trial by pro-English churchmen and burned at the stake. She was 19 then. (Later the pope investigated the trial, declared her innocent, and said she was a martyr. She was canonized, officially declared a saint by the Catholic Church, in 1920.)
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