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.
To continue reading the rest of this paper please visit MaidOfHeaven.com by clicking here

Christmas for Saint Joan of Arc

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!

Countdown to Joan of Arc’s 600th Birthday

We are now only a month away from celebrating the 600th anniversary of Saint Joan of Arc’s birth. To help you countdown a special clock was added to the birthday page at MaidOfHeaven.com that will reach zero at 12 midnight on January 5th in the town of Domremy where Joan was born. The clock currently shows a little more than 30 days to go which can be seen at the top of the page for
Joan of Arc’s Birthday

Please bookmark this page and check back anytime to see how much time is left. This page also contains details about Joan’s birth including quotes from the people who knew her the best and several new pictures of Joan, such as the one at the top of this article titled La Petite Jeannette, were recently added.

HOW ARE YOU GOING TO CELEBRATE JOAN’S 6OOTH BIRTHDAY!

As part of my own celebration I just recently finished writing a paper titled: Saint Joan of Arc: A Brilliantly Shining Light of God - The Significance of Joan of Arc’s Birth on the Epiphany. I will post this paper here at this blog just after Christmas so please check back then.

Jesus+Maria

Saint Joan of Arc and Veterans Day

How appropriate it is to remember Saint Joan of Arc on Veterans Day as she is the Patron Saint of Soldiers and was herself one of the greatest soldiers to ever live. Veterans Day began as Remembrance Day or Armistice Day and is celebrated every November 11th on the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice to end World War I. During World War I there were many reports of Saint Joan appearing to soldiers to inspire them onward in their duty as soldiers for God and country. The picture below is from the book The Broken Soldier and the Maid of France which is a fictional story based loosely upon some of these reports.

One episode from the life of Saint Joan that best demonstrates her own great love and compassion for soldiers occurred just after her greatest victory at the Battle of Patay. Coming across a mortally wounded enemy soldier Joan dismounted from her horse and held the man’s head in her lap and comforted him as he died. In reflecting upon this incident from her life one can only wonder as to the mysteries of God and how through His grace the likelihood that Saint Joan has continued to comfort dying soldiers in a similar way as their loving patron saint.

This Veterans Day let us remember Saint Joan and her example as the ultimate soldier: strong yet merciful, courageous yet loving. A true soldier of God!

Last Great Victory for Joan of Arc

"I am not alone! I have fifty thousand of my own company to fight with me!"

In the autumn of 1429, Charles VII seems to have been completely under the influence of his advisors who urged negotiation rather than battle. In light of this policy Joan of Arc was used in only a limited role when it suited the King and his advisors. For whatever reason they decided to send her to the strategically insignificant town of St. Pierre le Moutier where Joan once again showed her military brilliance by capturing the town despite having limited troops and supplies with which to overcome a stout defense.

During the battle when it appeared that all was lost and her men were retreating Joan again showed her courage and great leadership in completely turning the course of the battle. Joan’s aide-de-camp(my modern title) Jean d’Aulon describes the scene later at her trial of rehabilitation: “After the Maid and her soldiers had maintained the siege before the city for some time, an assault was ordered and made and all did their duty. But because of the great strength of the place, and also the great resistance made by those within, the French were forced to retreat. At this hour he who speaks, being wounded by an arrow in the heel, as such without crutches I could neither move nor sustain myself, saw that the Maid had remained behind with very few soldiers indeed. Fearing what might follow I mounted a horse, and hastily riding to her I asked her what she was doing there alone and why she had not retreated like the rest of the men. But the Maid, lifting the face guard of her helmet replied: ‘I am not alone! I have fifty thousand of my own company to fight with me and retreat I will not until I have taken this town.’ Whatever she might have said she had not with her more than four of five men, as I know for certain as do several others who were looking on, so I urged her to retreat like the rest. Then she told me to tell the men to bring faggots and brush to make a bridge across the moat which she yelled to the rest in a loud voice.”

Shortly thereafter the moat was filled and the town was taken by assault with little resistance to the amazement of d’Aulon. St. Joan of Arc once again prevailed against impossible odds however this was to be her last great victory. While she continued until her capture to have military successes she never again stormed and captured a city the way she did that day in early November of 1429 at Saint Pierre le Moutier.

***(Joan's words at St. Pierre le Moutier are very similar to those of the prophet Elisha in 2 Kings 6:23-24 about the unseen army of God all around us.)

Joan's Amazing Leap

During the month October in 1430, Joan of Arc was held prisoner at the Castle of Beaurevoir by the Burgundians who had captured her. Joan had been waiting since the end of May to be ransomed back to her own forces which was the normal custom of the time for military prisoners of war. Unfortunately for Joan the English were not ever going to allow her to again lead armies against them and were negotiating with the Burgundian John of Luxemburg to have Joan sold to them. Joan knew that if she were delivered into English hands she was as good as dead because they had always yelled taunts at her that if they captured her they would burn her.



Joan apparently knew about the negotiations to sell her to the English because she became desperate enough to attempt an escape by jumping from the window of the tower where she was held which was at least sixty feet above the ground. Later at her trial Joan explained about her escape attempt: “I was sold to the English and I preferred to die rather than be in the hands of the English.” Somehow Joan managed to survive the sixty foot drop that would have killed most people but she was knocked unconscious and was later found by her captors ending her escape attempt.

The miraculous feat of Joan surviving such a long fall was recently driven home to me when I had my own fall off of a ladder from about nine feet above the ground. I was very fortunate that I hit on my side and did not break any bones but I was busted up pretty bad with damage to my hand, knees, and face. It is five months later and I am just now getting back to normal with my front teeth still being a little sore. When I think about Joan falling sixty feet with no damage to herself all I can say is amazing, which is the same exclamation that can be used for so much of Joan’s life: AMAZING!

Saint Joan Needs Your Help!

If you have performed a Google search for Joan of Arc lately then you may have noticed that the #1 result returned is for a band named Joan of Arc. This came to my attention about a month ago and after researching this site and band I was able to determine that they have nothing whatsoever to do with the real Saint Joan of Arc. What really disturbs me the most are the offensive and pornographic words used in titles to songs and albums that jumped out at me when I visited this website. I know there have to be millions of school children using Google to research Joan of Arc and instead of finding what they are looking for they are being sent to this website instead. This is terrible and is something Google should deal with if for no other reason than this website has nothing at all to do with the real Joan of Arc and grossly violates their advertised policy to provide the most relevant search results. Below is the letter I sent yesterday to Google complaining about this spam site.

I encourage all of you to complain as well and if you need specific instructions on how to complain to Google online then please visit this special page below:
Page about Spam in Joan of Arc Google Search

Jesus+Maria