Joan of Arc Joan of Arc is also called the Maid of Orleans, a patron of France and a national heroine. Joan led the resistance to the English invasion in the Hundred Years' War. She was born the third of five children to a farmer. Jacques Darc and his wife Isabelle de Vouthon in the town of Domermy on the border of provinces of Champagne and Lorraine. Her childhood was spent attending her father's herds in the fields and learning religion and housekeeping skills from her mother. When Joan was about twelve years old, she began hearing "voices" of Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret. Joan believed them to have been sent to her from God. These voices told her that it was her divin