PARIS: History contends that the ashes of Saint Joan of Arc were gathered from the pyre on which she was burned alive and tossed into the river Seine.

Anxious to avoid creating a martyr, the English, who had ordered her death in 1431, wanted nothing left of the 19-year-old French heroine. According to legend, however, a devoted follower

traced and conceal some of her remains, including fragments of charred rib and material from clothing, that today are one of the Roman Catholic church’s most precious relics.

Now DNA tests are to be carried out on the Pucelle d’Orléans (the Maid of Orleans), who was killed 575 years ago for being a heretic and a witch after she claimed voices from God had told her to drive the English from France. Philippe Charlier, a genetic specialist at the Raymond-Pointcaré hospital at Garches, said the tests would solve the mystery over the relic.

Joan of Arc, was burned at the stake, but because her heart remained intact — seen in the 15th century as a miracle — her remains were cremated on two more occasions before being thrown in the river. “Today we can give medical reasons for why the heart, lungs and intestines might not have burned but in those days it was considered a miracle,” said Dr Charlier.

Born in Domrémy in 1412, Joan of Arc began hearing voices at 13 telling her to liberate France from the English. At 17 she led an army to relieve Orleans. After accepting the surrender of Troyes, she and her army escorted Charles VII to Rheims for his coronation in 1429. She was later captured and handed over to the English and then tried by a group of clergy who found her guilty. She was made a saint in 1920.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service