Joan of Arc, tried by an ecclesiastical court and convicted of witchcraft and heresy, was burned at the stake on May 30 1431. In 1456 an ecclesiastical investigation absolved her. She was canonized in 1920. Among sts, the unusual distinction of having been executed as a heretic.
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Thus, she may legitimately serve not only as a patron of France but of all those holy souls vilified in their own time in the hope of eventual vindication.