Saintly Liberator of France

Mark Twain is known as the author of the classics "Tom Sawyer" & "Huckleberry Finn." But towards the end of his life, he also produced a meticulously researched book on "Joan of Arc", which he considered his greatest work.

In it he narrated the true story of the teen aged, illiterate village girl, who, inspired by divine visions, managed to drive out the English, who had managed to occupy most of 15th Century France, forcing the cowardly Dauphin (Prince Regent) to cower in a corner of his kingdom. Things had come to such a sorry pass that the French soldiers would take to their heels on sighting an English soldier! She managed to convince the Dauphin with great difficulty to give her an army for this purpose. She became the only person in history to be appointed Commander-in-Chief of a nation's army at the age of 17. She succeeded in driving out most of the English army & crowning the Dauphin as the lawful King of France. 

It is said that she did not kill any English soldiers herself & only wanted them out of France. If she came across any dead, even the English, she would cry bitterly, being still at heart a young girl. In fact, once when she came across a dying English soldier, who had earlier vilely insulted her, she took his head on her lap like a sister & comforted him in his last moments!

However, she had incurred the hatred of both the English, who were incensed on being defeated in war by a mere chit of a girl & the French clergy, who were livid at her access to the Divine, bypassing them. So when at a final clearing operation, she fell into the hands of the English, the diabolical English did not kill her, rightly guessing she would be a perpetually honoured martyr for France. So they handed her over to the French clergy, who were only too glad to declare her a heretic & a witch & burn her alive at the stake. She was 19.

But they were not able to prevent her being honoured as a martyr the world over & even the Church, on thorough re-examination of the evidence, canonised her as a Saint belatedly in 1920.

The British had to wait many centuries later to come across another person, who did not hate them (exactly like Joan) but just wanted them out of the occupying country. He was called Gandhi.

Ironically, statues of both Joan & Gandhi are installed in England! There is even one of Joan in Pondicherry, installed during French occupation.