30th of May, 1431, Jeanne d'Arc was executed for the crime of heresy by burning. Her preceding interrogation was thoroughly documented and provides posterity with a richer account of her early years than any other person living at that time. Funny things that happen when you make a martyr. Well documented as well is 19-year-old Jeanne's extreme piety, up to the moment of her immolation. It's this evidence that led Pope Callexitus III to reopen her case and overturn her conviction, 24 years too late. 509 years after the fact, Pope Benedict XV canonized her.
I cannot pretend to know what was in St. Joan's mind as the flames reached to hold her. It would be absurd to literally compare anything befalling me in my life to date with the incredible waste of the passionate young woman. But, as I am fired from my comfortably unsatisfying job on her death-day, I feel a kinship with the patron saint of all of us who were useful and then cast aside.
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