Joan of Arc, Saint or Sinner?

So many people see this girl as a saint, a person that gave everything that she had for her country in an awe inspiring and even spiritual way. However, was she really a saint, was she truly doing the work of God?

Joan of Ark grew up in a poor family, she was the youngest out of five, she could not read or write but apparently she was rather skilled at sewing and spinning, something that every woman of those times could do to some degree or another.

Joan was a very serious child, she spent a lot of time in the church praying and when she wasn’t doing that she was taking care of the poor… so what inspired this child to go off to war? What made her give up these things and go and fight? Well, it is said that when she was 13 years old (in 1425) she started hearing voices of a supposedly supernatural character, these voices were accompanied by a blaze of light and she claimed that she recognized the supernatural beings that were speaking to her, they were different saints of the Church…at her trial she did not like to talk about them although she did say that she saw them with "her very own eyes…"

It has been suggested that Joan was influenced by priests and the local legends about a maid that would save France, one other thing that was mentioned about her childhood was the fact that there was a certain tree called the fairy tree, now it was at this tree that certain superstitions practices were evidently carried out and something interesting is the fact the Joan of Arc, up until the age of 12 used to go and sing and dance around the tree with other children her age…also at the same spot she used to make wreaths for the Lady’s statue.

It is believed that the voices made Joan d’Arc’s mission known to her at a gradual pace and by 1428 she was sure of what she had to do, at the voices insistence she found Robert Baudricourt, commander for Charles VII; after two attempts she was eventually accepted and she began to lead the French army to great victories.

She had a very aggressive style of fighting something that was not done too much by the French in those days. She dazed everybody with her supernatural way of dealing with things and even managed to convince the king that she was sent by God.

Time went by and Joan of Arc was able to predict the future on more then one occasion…at the very beginning when they tried to give her a sword she refused and asked them to dig in a certain place and they would find an ancient sword…they did as she requested and sure enough the sword was right where she said it would be, Joan of Arc claimed that the voices told her where it was hidden.

It was because of Joan d’Arc that Charles VII was eventually crowned; she convinced him after showing him a secret that the voices had revealed to her.

When Joan of Arc was finally captured her accusers tried everything to convict her…they looked for anything that would allow them to sentence her to death. But no matter what questions they asked she had a correct and clever answer for them….the whole time managing to be utterly submissive and humble…there was one time when they almost got her on the stake but at the last moment she agreed to sign a paper saying that she repented and that she was going to be a good catholic…that only saved her for the time being however as they soon were able to convict her on the fact that she insisted on wearing men’s clothing.

So, was she a saint or a witch, as they accused her?
In her child hood she played around a tree that was the place of witches gatherings…she heard voices that many times threatened her and forced her to do things that she did not want to do…Joan of Arc herself admitted, at the end of her life when she was in prison, that, "Her voices had deceived her".

Now I have some questions for the reader; does God bully His followers around? Does God deceive His People? So who was Joan d’Arc really, was she a saint or just another sinner?