From the Stake to the Altar

On this day in 1431, a nineteen-year-old girl was burned alive in the old marketplace in Rouen.

She climbed the scaffold wearing an enormous cap, which said:

Heretic,

Recidivist,

Apostate,

Idolatress.

After she was burned to death, her body was thrown from a bridge into the Seine, so the waters would carry her far away.

She had been condemned by the Catholic Church and the Kingdom of France.

Her name was Joan of Arc.

Heard of her?

~Eduardo Galeano, Children of the Days