One can only wonder about how Saint Joan of Arc celebrated Christmas as there is unfortunately nothing in the historic records however there is little doubt that Christmas would have been a very special time for Joan given her intense love and devotion to God. While Joan was growing up in the small town of Domremy she most likely would have attended at least one worship service and possible more on Christmas day at the little church of St. Remy located just next door to her house. Joan may also have made a pilgrimage to the nearby chapel of Notre-Dame de Bermont dedicated to Mary the mother of Christ. Several of the people from Domremy remember seeing Joan “make confession on Easter and on other feast days” so she is likely to have done so as well on Christmas day. However Joan celebrated Christmas she would have focused on Jesus as this was the focus of her life (read last years Christmas blog entry Jesus & Joan for more).In the days when Joan lived the Christmas celebration continued for twelve days until the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th which was the day of greatest celebration in medieval times. [For those who don’t already know the celebration of the Epiphany in Christian tradition refers to the revelation of God to man in the person of Jesus Christ and the central part of the celebration features the arrival of the “Wise Men” who were led to the baby Jesus by a shining star.] For Joan this day was even more special as this was also her birthday. As a gift to Joan for Christmas and for the 600th anniversary of her birthday I recently wrote a paper detailing the significance of Joan of Arc’s birth on the Epiphany titled: "Saint Joan of Arc: A Brilliantly Shining Light of God." This paper will be posted online next week so please check back then.
Until then, a Merry ChristMASS to all!
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