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St. Joan of Arc was born in January, 1412, at Domremy in Champagne. Jacques d'Arc, Joan's father, was a small peasant farmer, poor but not needy. Joan was the youngest of five children. She could not read or write, but she was very talented at sewing and spinning. Some people have gotten the idea that she spent all of her childhood in the pastures alone with sheep, this is simply not true. Many people witnessed her praying intensely as a child. When she was 13 and a half in the summer of 1425, Joan first became aware of the supernatural manifestation. She would later call these her "voices" or her "counsel." It was at first simply a voice, as if someone had spoken quite close to her, but it seems also clear that a blaze of light accompanied it. Later in her life, she would clearly identify them as St. Michael who was accompanied by other angels. The other angels were St. Margaret, St. Catherine, and others she did not know.
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