Joan of Arc’s 600th Birthday and the Significance of Her Birth on the Epiphany.

In eleven days on January 6th of 2012 it will be the 600th anniversary of Saint Joan of Arc’s birth and there will be worldwide celebrations to honor Joan and remember the brilliance of her life. What a contrast, indeed, to the humble way that she entered the world as a simple peasant baby born in an obscure little town. No one among the few friends and family who were aware of Joan’s birth in 1412 would have ever believed that this little baby would grow up to lead the armies of France to victory and become one of the most beloved Saints of God. In fact, the birth of peasant girls in Joan’s day was considered so insignificant that her birth was never even officially recorded however the people of her hometown did remember that Joan had been born on the Feast of the Epiphany. While the people of the world had no idea what Joan would become God in His infinite wisdom of course knew and He may have given the world a clue about Joan with the timing of her birth on the Epiphany. To celebrate Joan’s 600th birthday and as a present to her I thought I would try to explain the great significance of the timing of Joan’s birth on the Epiphany.

Saint Joan of Arc: A Brilliantly Shining Light of God
The Significance of Joan of Arc’s Birth on the Epiphany

“Most beautiful Maid of Heaven, how brilliant is your light.
Like a shining star you point the way to the Father of all light.”
These opening sentences to Maid of Heaven serve not only as a poetic tribute to the brilliance of Saint Joan of Arc’s life but are also an analogy to the birth of Christ and to Saint Joan’s ultimate mission for God to lead people to Christ. That Saint Joan was actually born on the Epiphany seems to be God’s own exclamation point that this was indeed her greatest mission in her short life here on earth. The significance of Joan’s birth on the Epiphany, therefore, can not be understated and considering the amount of mystical phenomena indwelled in her life’s story it seems rather amazing that the exact timing of her birth on the Epiphany has received so little attention by the legions of writers and artists who have covered Joan in every conceivable form of human expression over the years.

Since I finished writing Maid of Heaven in 2006 I have found myself more than a little reluctant to discuss some of the deeper elements of this poem because I fear it will be too difficult to explain to most people because of what I can only refer to as the mysteries of God. Maid of Heaven was for the most part written “in the Spirit” which is a term that most people have heard however few seem to understand or accept. Since Maid of Heaven was written “in the Spirit” it means that while I wrote the words on paper I was not completely aware of all that I was writing at the time. A prime example are the opening sentences which I am now going to attempt to fully explain because I feel that the great significance of Saint Joan’s birth on the Epiphany is something I MUST convey to people.
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