Joan of Arc: Voice of the Angels?

Was the young French girl really hearing God's guidance? Or was it something else?

BY: Johanna Skilling

Think of a 13-year-old girl you know or have known. If she’s like most young girls, she is alternately naive and wise, giddy and sulky, vulnerable and just starting to chafe at the boundaries of childhood. And yet you wouldn’t expect her to leave home, travel hundreds of miles, and lead an army against an enemy force. Particularly if this 13-year-old had no education, couldn’t read or write, and had never so much as picked up a weapon.

And yet Jeanne d’Arc did just that. Did she see an angel? Was it the Archangel Michael who became her advisor, and led her to become commander-in-chief of the French army? Because with no military background, this young girl did what generations of French generals had been unable to achieve: beat back the English invaders and liberate much of her homeland.

Joan was the youngest of five children, a girl who was good at sewing and spinning. From a young age, she was often in church, kneeling for hours in prayer.

At age 13, Joan heard a voice. It sounded quite close, as if someone was speaking in her ear; a blaze of light accompanied the sound. Joan continued to receive these heavenly messages; as time went on she recognized her angelic counselors to be St. Michael, St. Margaret, St. Catherine, and others.

By the time she was 16, the voices had begun to urge her to find the French Dauphin, Charles, whose armies were waging a losing war against the English for control of the country. She actually tried to meet one of Charles’ generals, but after she was rudely sent away, Joan’s voices became even more insistent.

"I am a poor girl,” Joan replied. “I do not know how to ride or fight." And yet the voices told her: "It is God who commands it."

So once again, Joan made the trip to see the general. While trying to gain access to him, she received a vision: The French would suffer a terrible defeat by the English, in the “Battle of the Herrings,” in the town of Orléans. When her prediction proved true, several days later, the general arranged for her to have an audience with Charles himself.

The Dauphin in disguise. Can Joan recognize him?
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