The Sainthood of Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc was the peasant girl whose "voices" told her to lead the French army to victory in the Hundred Years War against England. She won at Orleans and other places, but France lost the war and English Catholics tried the 19-year-old for heresy and burned her to death in 1431. On this day in 1920, a much-changed Roman Catholic Church made her a saint. In the next 600 years she's been the subject of more books, plays, paintings, musical compositions and movies than almost any historical figure. Bonnie Wheeler is a professor of Medieval Studies at Southern Methodist University, Director of the International Joan of Arc Society and author of Fresh Verdicts of Joan of Arc and Joan of Arc and Spirituality.