Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc was a significant figure in French history, who rose from peasant origins up the ranks of the French army to lead it to victory over the English, with whom France was at war. Joan claimed to have visions of saints telling her to lead the French to victory, which apparently convinced even the king of France.
With hindsight, the charisma and behavior she exhibited sounds awfully like several mental disorders, including paranoid schizophrenia. While impressive, to followers, it was used against Joan later, when her life ended at the age of 19 as she was captured and railroaded through an ecclesiastical court on a trumped-up charge of heresy when her visions were labeled Satanic, then burned at the stake. Once it was politically tenable for the pope to do so, he reclassified her as a martyr; she was later made a saint of the Church. Got that wrong too eh?
Joan of Arc was not from Arc, there's no place called Arc, her surname was Darc and she signed her given name Jeanne, or the female version of Jean, which is French for John. So Joan Darc. Darc sounds a lot like D'Arc or "of Arc," hence the confusion.
[edit] Defender of French culture
The image of Joan of Arc sacrificing her life to rid the France of immigrants has proved a very appealing one for the extreme-right Front National, who have decided to honor her memory each May 1st. This provides them with a convenient excuse to mount a counter-demonstration to the traditional International Workers' Day demonstrations and their evul international communist themes.
The Catholic church has reminded them repeatedly that
- Joan of Arc's official saint's day is not May 1st, and
- they don't have the authority to set the church calendar,
but those usually pious extremists have been busy ignoring them.
[edit] In fiction
George Bernard Shaw's play Saint Joan, written in 1924, summarized what is known about Joan's life and death in a dramatic context, creating a juicy role that actresses have trampled each other to death forrelished ever since.
The film adaptation, written by Graham Greene and directed by Otto Preminger, was famous as the début of the American actress Jean Seberg. Ms. Seberg was burned twice — once in an accident on the set, and again by the critics when they saw her performance.