Louisville, KY -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/02/2012 -- In only few 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 to the humble way that she entered the world as a simple peasant baby born in an obscure little town. As author and Joan of Arc biographer Ben D. Kennedy explains: “When Joan was born no one paid any attention as she was just another peasant child born in an obscure little village. No one then had any idea that this little baby girl would become one the greatest military leaders in history and still be loved and remembered 600 years later.”

However, Kennedy says that the timing of Joan of Arc’s birth on the Epiphany was actually a sign foretelling the brilliance of her life and her ultimate mission. As a way to celebrate Joan’s 600th birthday Kennedy has written a paper discussing the exact timing of Joan’s birth on the Epiphany. The paper is titled “Saint Joan of Arc: A Brilliantly Shining Light of God” and explains the significance of Joan’s birth on this special day of celebration in Christian tradition. [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 is celebrated on the twelfth day after the birth of Christ on January 6.]

“It is amazing that so little attention has been given to Joan’s birth on the Epiphany by the great writers who covered Joan’s life like Shakespeare, Schiller, Bernard Shaw, Twain, etc. Her life’s story contains so many other supernatural references and yet no one seems to have understood about the timing of her birth” says Kennedy. “I hope my paper will open a few eyes and I thought the 600th anniversary of her birthday would be the perfect time to write about this.”

Joan of Arc lived for only nineteen years but the brilliance of her life has continued to inspire people down through the ages and she has been the subject for some of the greatest writers and artists in history. She was the youngest person in history at only seventeen to command the armies of a nation. She won two of the greatest victories in all of military history at Orleans and Patay. Despite her military success she was ultimately captured by her enemies and convicted in a rigged trial for heresy and burned at the stake where she died at the young age of nineteen. Throughout her life she maintained her faith in God and was ultimately rewarded in 1920 when she was canonized a Saint by the same Church that had once condemned her to death by fire. She continues to be one of the most beloved people in all of history.

January 6, 2012 will mark the 600th anniversary of Joan of Arc’s birth.

To read Ben D. Kennedy’s paper about Joan of Arc and the significance of her birth on the Epiphany visit MaidOfHeaven.com http://www.maidofheaven.com/joanofarc_birth_epiphany.asp Ben D. Kennedy is the author of the best selling biography Maid of Heaven: The Story of Saint Joan of Arc. Ben is also the creator and curator of MaidOfHeaven.com the world’s largest website about Saint Joan of Arc which received almost a million pageviews in 2011.