On April 19, 1909, Pope Pius X of the Roman Catholic Church formally bestowed beatification upon Joan of Arc. The term itself comes from two Latin words — beatus and facere — which translate to "blessed" and "to make," respectively. Through this process, the Catholic Church officially acknowledges that a deceased individual has entered heaven. It is regarded as a tremendous honor, and it also permits the faithful to call upon the beatified person in prayer through a practice called the Intercession of the Saints.
The ceremony honoring Joan of Arc's beatification was held at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. She had been born in the Kingdom of France in 1412, during the Middle Ages, and was approximately seventeen years old when she departed her hometown to seek an audience with King Charles VII. Twice her request was turned away, likely in no small part because she was a young woman from a peasant family. Yet on her third attempt, she managed to gain access to the King.
Joan claimed to have received messages from three divine figures: the archangel Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine. According to her testimony, they had commanded her to do everything in her power to help the King reclaim the Kingdom of France from English conquest. King Charles VII found her account convincing and wasted no time dispatching her to the Siege of Orléans with the relief army. In less than two months after her arrival, she proved instrumental in the defeat of the English at the Battle of Patay.
Her efforts in defense of France continued with remarkable success, lifting the spirits of both the French army and French citizens as she went. In 1430, though, she was seized while organizing volunteer efforts and handed over to the English. An English-siding French bishop presided over her trial, where she was found guilty of heresy and subsequently burned at the stake. She was just nineteen years old at the time of her death.
While beatification is sometimes treated as interchangeable with canonization — that is, formal admission into sainthood by the Catholic Church — the two are actually distinct processes. In Joan of Arc's case, after her record was cleared of all charges, she ultimately received both honors.