An Interview with Joan of Arc Trivia Quiz

Answer: St. Michael, St. Catherine, St. Margaret

Around the age of 13, Joan of Arc was standing in her father's garden when she experienced her very first vision, hearing voices accompanied by a bright, heavenly light. She identified these divine messengers as Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and Saint Margaret of Antioch.

At first, the voices simply offered her personal comfort and told her to be a good child and go to church often. However, as the visions continued over the next few years, their messages grew far more intense and specific: they told her that God had chosen her for a grand, impossible mission.

Answer: Recognized him even though he was disguised

To prove she was truly guided by God, a young Joan traveled to the royal court in Chinon (southwest of Tours) to meet Charles VII, who was the uncrowned prince fighting to be the rightful King of France. To test her claims, Charles hid himself among the crowd of courtiers and dressed a noble in his royal robes to act as a decoy.

Despite having never seen the real prince before, Joan walked right past the fake king, stepped directly up to the real Charles in his disguise, and bowed to him. She claimed she knew him from "the counsel of my Voices". She then pulled him aside and privately told him a secret, something he had only ever said in a silent prayer to God, which completely convinced Charles that she possessed divine, heavenly knowledge and earned her the earned her the royal backing to lead the army.

Answer: Orleans

By 1429, the city of Orleans was the last major stronghold protecting the rest of France from being completely taken over by the English in the Hundred Years War. The city had been surrounded and starving for six months, and the French soldiers had completely lost hope. Everything changed when a young Joan of Arc arrived.

Instead of waiting around, she immediately gave energy to the French troops, leading them right to the front lines to attack the English forts. Even after being shot in the shoulder with an arrow, she refused to quit, running back into the fight to inspire a final, large French victory. In just nine days, Joan completely broke the siege and forced the English to retreat, saving France from total defeat and proving to the world that she was the real deal.

Answer: A white banner with religious symbols

When Joan of Arc rode into battle, she wore a full suit of gleaming steel armor, which was specially fitted for her by order of the French prince. While the heavy armor (for the most part) protected her from deadly arrows and swords, her most famous and beloved piece of equipment was not a weapon at all, but a giant custom white banner that she carried proudly into the heart of combat.

Joan openly stated that she loved this banner forty times more than any sword, largely because she wanted to inspire her troops without ever having to kill anyone herself. The banner, made of a heavy fabric, was painted with a detailed religious image showing God sitting on the clouds and holding the world, flanked by two kneeling angels, with the sacred words "Jhesus Maria" (Jesus Mary) displayed across it. In the middle of battles, French soldiers could look up and see Joan's bright white banner waving right on the front lines, leading them forward and giving them courage.

Answer: Five crosses

When Joan of Arc heard her heavenly voices revealing a sacred weapon buried behind the altar of the Church of Saint Catherine at Fierbois, she gave the clergy specific details to look for. She told them that the sword was hidden in the earth, heavily rusted, and contained five crosses on the blade. It was found exactly where she directed. Once "the rust fell from it without difficulty" (as she later stated in her trial), the five distinct crosses became clearly visible.

Although there is no definitive historical proof, many people passionately believed this weapon had originally belonged to Charles Martel, the legendary grandfather of Charlemagne who had saved France from invasion seven hundred years prior.

Answer: Reims Cathedral

French tradition strictly mandated that a monarch must be anointed with holy oil at Notre Dame Cathedral in Reims. The city of Reims was where Clovis, the very first King of the Franks, was baptized around the year 500 AD. According to legend, a white dove had delivered a vial of holy oil from heaven for that ceremony, and that same oil was used to anoint every French king who followed.

Joan marched Charles VII through enemy lines to this specific cathedral on July 17, 1429. Instead of standing quietly in the crowd, she took center stage during the coronation ceremony, standing right beside the altar. This was a massive breach of traditional royal protocol, as only the highest ranking male nobles and church officials were typically allowed near the altar during a king's crowning.

Answer: Burgundian forces allied with England

During the Hundred Years' War, France was locked in a brutal civil war alongside its conflict with England. The Burgundians were a powerful French faction allied with the English, led by the Duke of Burgundy, who fiercely opposed Charles VII's claim to the throne. On May 23, 1430, a Burgundian soldier managed to pull Joan of Arc from her horse after she was trapped outside the gates of Compiegne.

The Burgundians kept her as a high value prisoner for several months, moving her between various castles. While Joan desperately hoped King Charles VII would rescue her or pay for her release, the French king did nothing to help. Seizing the opportunity, the English offered the Burgundians an enormous financial payout, a sum large enough to be a king's ransom, to buy Joan, allowing them to put her on trial and take their ultimate revenge.

Answer: Death by burning at the stake

Following a grueling and deeply biased five month trial in the city of Rouen, the English controlled court found the 19-year-old Joan guilty of heresy. Because the English could not legally execute her just for winning battles, they used the church court to brand her a witch and a heretic to claim that King Charles VII had won his crown through dark magic.

Her sentence was execution by being burned at the stake, a brutal punishment reserved by the medieval church for unrepentant heretics. On May 30, 1431, she was tied to a pillar in the old marketplace of Rouen. As the flames were lit, she requested a crucifix to be held before her eyes and loudly called out the name of Jesus until her death, a final display of faith that reportedly moved many in the watching crowd to tears.

Answer: It was officially overturned and declared null

In 1456, a formal retrial known as the Trial of Nullification was opened by Pope Callixtus III at the request of Joan's surviving mother, Isabelle Romée, and the French grand inquisitor. With the Hundred Years' War finally winding down and the English driven out of most of France, King Charles VII wanted to permanently clear his own name of any association with a convicted heretic.

Church officials re-examined the transcripts of the original 1431 trial, interviewed over a hundred living witnesses who had known Joan, and investigated the corrupt judges who had condemned her. The Pope officially declared the original trial full of fraud, deceit, and legal errors, completely overturning her conviction and declaring Joan entirely innocent. She was proclaimed a martyr who had been wrongfully executed, restoring her honor after a quarter of a century.

Answer: Officially canonized as a Saint

On May 16, 1920, Pope Benedict XV officially canonized Joan of Arc as a Saint during a grand ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, attended by over 30,000 people. While the French public had revered her as a national hero and a symbol of patriotic courage for centuries, the official journey to sainthood took nearly half a millennium due to the complex politics surrounding her original trial.

To achieve canonization, the Church meticulously reviewed her life and verified the required miracles attributed to her intercession. Today, Saint Joan of Arc is recognized globally as the patron saint of soldiers, captives, and France. Her transition from a condemned heretic to an officially recognized saint remains one of the most amazing reversals of honor in world history.