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Joan of Arc is known as a French heroine, a courageous woman warrior, but her life was filled with difficulties. As a child Joan was unable to learn to read or write because she was a peasant. She grew up during France's war with England and England had taken control of the northern part of France. Joan was soon faced with another difficulty at the age of thirteen when she began having religious visions and hearing the voices of saints. Historians believe that Joan may have really been a psychic.
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One day the voices in Joan's visions convinced her that God had chosen her to help Charles VII, King of France, drive the English out of France. When Joan was 17 years old she went to see the king. Joan had a hard time trying to convince King Charles VII that she was not making the visions up, but she finally convinced him. He gave her an army and some armor and she drove the English out of city after city. However, she was caught by the English during one of the battles. When they found out about her visions, they accused her of heresy and witchcraft, for which she was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431. Fourteen years later Joan's family asked for a new trial against her, and she was found innocent. In 1920, Joan was finally honored for her bravery by being made a saint.
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