Joan of Arc (1412–1431) was formally canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church on 16 May 1920 by Pope Benedict XV in his bull Divina disponente, which concluded the canonization process that the Sacred Congregation of Rites instigated after a petition of 1869 of the French Catholic hierarchy. Although pro-English clergy had Joan burnt at the stake for heresy in 1431, she was rehabilitated in 1456 after a posthumous retrial. Subsequently, she became a folk saint among French Catholics and soldiers inspired by her story of being commanded by God to fight for France against England. Many French regimes encouraged her cult, and the Third Republic was sympathetic to the canonization petition prior to the 1905 separation of church and state.
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Canonization of Joan of Arc in the context of Saint Joan (play)
Saint Joan is a play by George Bernard Shaw about the 15th-century French military figure Joan of Arc. It is divided into six scenes and a final epilogue. It was first produced in New York in December 1923 and opened in London three months later.
Written after Joan's canonisation by the Roman Catholic Church, the play depicts her progress from peasant girl to military leader, her subsequent trial for heresy and her execution.