Joan of Arc is interrogated by The Cardinal of Winchester in her prison. Oil on canvas by Hippolyte Delaroche,1824. Joan of Arc (1January 6, 1412 - May 30, 1431) national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII. She was captured by the Burgundians, sold to the English, tried by an ecclesiastical court, and burned at the stake when she was 19 years old. Twenty-five years after the execution, Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, pronounced her innocent and declared her a martyr. Joan of Arc was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920. She is one of the Patron Saints of France