Humility, Purity, Honesty, and Simplicity

"If I were to say that God sent me, I shall be condemned, but God really did send me."

~ Joan of Arc

http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/
special/131christians/joanofarc.html

The dauphin Charles turned her over to churchmen from the University of Poitiers. Weeks of doubt and indecision followed while she was questioned, but finally her examiners found "only humility, purity, honesty, and simplicity." Soon she was helping 4,000 troops to relieve the besieged city of Orleans. ...

In a few months, the town of Reims was recaptured, and the dauphin was officially crowned king of France (Reims was the traditional city for coronation). ... On a sortie the next year, the 18-year-old soldier was captured by the English, who put her on ecclesiastical trial in Rouen.

Joan was imprisoned for nearly five months, repeatedly questioned about her views, and finally charged on 70 counts of heresy. ...

At 9 a.m. on May 30, 1431, 19-year-old Joan walked toward the market square. She knelt and prayed for her enemies, then mounted the prepared pyre. As the flames leapt upward, Joan asked for a cross to be held before her. Gazing upon it, her final word was "Jesus."

It would be 25 years before a church commission overturned the charges against her and declared her innocent. In 1920 Joan-—remembered for her heroism and devotion far more than her military and political conquests—-was canonized a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.