Joan is my patron saint. I have never been happy with her story—I felt God should have swooped down and saved her and thrown her persecutors into the fire instead. However, mine is not to question the ways of the Lord anymore. I have to admit I do not understand His mysterious ways.
A nineteen year old girl consumed by fire is a bit hard to take, isn’t it? For me, that has always been the most harrowing aspect of the remarkable life: A devoted, unquestioning servant of God, ending her life in unspeakable pain. God’s earthly treatment of His martyrs is indeed hard to fathom.
However, some of the eyewitness accounts seem to suggest at least, that she was spared some torment, as she seemed MOST fixated on grasping a crucifix held up to her by onlookers, as she died.