Mark Twain, of all people, wrote the definitive work on St. Joan of Arc, which also must be one of the most exhaustively researched biographies ever. It was Twain’s crowning achievement, and the work of which he was most proud.
Twain, at the time an agnostic, spend over 12 years in research, much of it with primary source documents in France itself. The divine miracles of Joan’s life, perhaps unique in history, were documented by not one, but two rigorous, thorough, fact-seeking and confirming trials.
For those questioning the existence of God and/or divine intervention, I invariably direct them to Twain’s cornerstone “Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc”.
He was an agnostic?
“There is one notable thing about our Christianity: bad, bloody, merciless, money-grabbing, and predatory. The invention of Hell measured by our Christianity of today, bad as it is, hypocritical as it is, empty and hollow as it is, neither the deity nor his son is a Christian, nor qualified for that moderately high place. Ours is a terrible religion. The fleets of the world could swim in spacious comfort in the innocent blood it has spilled.”
- Mark Twain