Joan of Arc, national heroine of France, a peasant girl who, believing that she was acting under divine guidance, led the French army in a momentous victory that repulsed an English attempt to conquer France during the Hundred Years’ War. Captured a year afterward, Joan was burned to death as a heretic.
Mark Twain’s book on St. Joan of Arc shows that God can work spectacularly through the unlikeliest of candidates, whether humble maidens or skeptical authors.