Joan’s story
Perhaps the most famous person to have been guided by a mysterious voice is Joan of Arc. The French farm girl was 13 when she first heard her ‘ counsel’ in 1425, in her father’s garden, where the voice was accompanied by a blazing white light. She was afraid at first, but the more she heard the voices, the more she trusted them. A devout Catholic, she believed them to be the voices of saints and angels. In 1428, the voices told her to visit the French king’s son, the Dauphin, and tell him she’d defeat the English if he let her command his army. Almost unbelievably, this came to pass, and this teenage girl defeated the English at Orleans. However, she was captured by the English and executed in 1431.