MAID OF HEAVEN
The Story of Saint Joan of Arc
A new book about Joan of
Arc poetically tells her classic story in a way that makes you feel like you
are with her as she makes history.
Everyone has heard of
Joan of Arc but how many people really know the complete story about this
famous person? Perhaps it is the
complexity of all that happened to her and the long, hard to read biographies
that keep most people from knowing the full story. Ben D. Kennedy solves this problem by
delivering an easy to read yet compelling biography that covers the life of
Joan of Arc in a way that is both beautiful and inspiring.
The story of Joan of
Arc is so remarkable that it is one that everyone should fully know. Called by God to rescue her people from the
invading English, she answers the call when she is only sixteen years old. A little over two years later, she is dead
but in the brief time she lived, she accomplished as much as anyone in history and became the legendary figure that she remains
today.
At first glance, you
might wonder how a poem can cover such a story but Kennedy explains: “I can say in a poem in a few lines what it
would take pages to say in a regular biography and say it better. In today’s World, few people have the time or
the inclination to read a thousand page biography but Maid of Heaven can be
read in less than an hour.” The other
advantages to the poetic form of writing become apparent as you read Maid of
Heaven. The sheer beauty of the easy
flowing verse brings to the story a kind of Homeric heroism echoing classic
epic poems of the past.
A SAMPLE OF WHAT READERS ARE SAYING:
“I was impressed by
his clever English prose that was able to combine actual historical fact and
the words spoken by Joan herself.”
“I felt like I was
right with Joan which made her seem so much more real to me than she was before
I read Maid of Heaven.” Lynne- Falls of
Rough, KY
“I
have to admire the perseverance she had to continue her mission
with such courage, yet very human with her fears makes her story very heroic
and most people will be able to relate to her as one of us.”
“After reading Maid
of Heaven, I could see that Joan of Arc faced some of the same problems we have
today like corrupt governments.” Rick-
Publication Data: Maid of Heaven: The Story of Saint Joan of Arc by Ben D.
Kennedy; 2007; 112 pages; Paperback; RLK Press; $ 8.99 ISBN: 0-9752-6562-8
Contact Information: Please send an email requsting contact info to: 
About Ben D. Kennedy:
Ben D. Kennedy is the Poet Laureate of PoliticalPoet.com
where he has written extensively about life in
“People have asked me why I chose to write about Saint Joan since it seems to some a departure from my normal American based writings. There is much that I can say about how the lessons learned from Saint Joan's life are very relevant to today's American citizen, but the real reason I wrote about her is ultimately much more personal. I find myself feeling similar to the way a great American writer of the nineteenth century felt. Mark Twain, after finishing his own biography about Saint Joan of Arc, said that: ‘Possibly the book may not sell, but that is nothing-it was written for love.’
I originally intended to just publish Maid of Heaven at
PoliticalPoet.com, but, since it turned out so much better than I had hoped, I
decided a book would be the best way to share it with as many people as
possible.”
Q & A
Ben D. Kennedy
Why did you write Maid of Heaven? My dream, when I started writing Maid of Heaven, was to cover in a poem the life of Saint Joan in a way that would give the reader a sense of what I have learned after studying her life for years and reading literally tens of thousands of pages about her. In today's modern hectic society, most people have neither the time nor the inclination to devote to such study so I felt a poem was the only way to reach many people with this incredible story. It was a tremendous challenge that took over a year to write but I think that Maid of Heaven does succeed in covering the life of Saint Joan of Arc.
What makes the story
of Joan of Arc so incredible? All
that she was able to accomplish at such a young age is unparalleled in
history. Only 17 when she was put in command of the French army, she is the youngest
person to ever command the armies of a nation.
In only a couple of months she was able to completely reverse a war that
had been going on for almost 100 years that the French were about to lose. The victories she won at
Why did you title
your poem Maid of Heaven? The term
Maid was very important to Saint Joan herself and she preferred to be called
Joan the Maid. In the time in which she
lived it signified a virgin but I think to Joan it
meant much more. Her physical purity was
simple an out flowing of her spiritual purity that inspired everyone around her
so to her I think the term Maid made it clear that she lived completely for
God. As her career progressed so did her name with Maid attached. First, when she began her career she was known by many as the Maid of Lorraine referring to the
prophecy that
Why is Joan of Arc still remembered so many years later? Her military victories will always ensure her a place in history but I think she has become a hero to many people for much greater reasons. Since she died, people have continued to look to her as a symbol of hope whenever freedom has been threatened. In both WWI and WWII, the French rallied behind her name as a symbol of resistance to tyranny. As freedom in our own times becomes more and more threatened I think you will see more people turning to her to learn how to fight.
She is obviously a
hero to you. Is this the reason? It is part of the reason but I also admire
her greatly for the kind of person that she was. Her devotion to God, the great strength she
derived from her faith, her loyalty to the people she loved, there is so much
to like about Saint Joan of Arc. I think
what amazes me the most is how much about I was able to learn about God from
studying her life. I have listened to
thousands of sermons and read thousands of pages about God and yet she was able
to teach me some spiritual truths that I seemed unable to learn anywhere
else.
What are these spiritual truths that you have learned? There are many important lessons that can be learned from her life but there are two spiritual truths that I leaned from her that have made a great difference for me personally. God helps those who help themselves is something I was told was not true because these exact words are not in the Bible. When Church scholars first examined Saint Joan, she was asked why she needed an army if God desired to deliver the French people. I quoted her reply in Maid of Heaven because it is so simple and yet so profound: “In Gods name, the soldiers will fight and He will grant victory.” The priests examining her looked at each other amazed at her perfect response saying it was just that way in the story of David where David had the faith to go out and fight Goliath and trust God to give him victory. I think this is a very important lesson for people to learn. I am constantly hearing people say they are praying for our country, which is good, but it takes more than prayer. Joan teaches us that we need to also take action and trust God to give us the victory.
The other spiritual truth that has meant a lot to me relates to the first in that if we want to be blessed by God with victory then we should want to be completely on God’s side by eliminating the things in our lives that displease Him. When Saint Joan first took command of the French army, she told them that if they wanted to be aided by God then they were going to have to become the army of God. She ordered them to begin going to mass regularly and eliminate the usual carnal pursuits that have plagued all armies like profanity, gambling and prostitution. This was no small order because the core of the French army consisted of mercenaries who considered such pursuits as much a part of soldiering as fighting. Many of the leaders in the army later commented that it was a great miracle that the men and the officers did obey her and that the nature of the army completely changed. What also completely changed was that after almost 100 years of losing the French army started winning.
Are there others
lessons to be learned from her life or is this just a
story for Christians? This is a
story for everyone and I have already been amazed at the response I have
received from a wide range of people. We
all face some of the same struggles she faced and would like
to be able to handle them with the same courage and dignity in which she
handled her struggles. The
lessons to be learned from her life can help anyone,
which is why I think she inspires so many people.
How historically accurate is it? Maid of Heaven is extremely historically accurate. I worked from the best biographies available which I list at the end in the Bibliography. I feel when writing about a historical figure I have a duty to portray them as close as possible to the way they were based on the historical record. In the case of Saint Joan, her life is the best documented of anybody in history not from our modern times.
Why is her life so well documented? The Catholic Church officially examined her
life three different times. First,
before she was given command of the French army the
King asked the Church to examine her.
For three weeks, they questioned her about herself and her motives. The also sent their agents back to her
The second time her life was examined was when she was put on trial by the part of the Church controlled by the English. To me this is some of the best historical evidence because this examination was conducted by her enemies who were trying to destroy her reputation before they killed her. Fortunately for history, the head recorder refused to alter the record, even though he was threatened with death to change it, so we have an accurate record of what was said at her trial. This trial record has proved invaluable to historians because it is extremely in-depth and touches on just about every aspect of her life.
The third time her life was examined began about 20 years after she died when Charles VII, the King she had crowned, decided he would clear the record. He asked the Church to again examine her life and the trial that the English had conducted. This last examination may have been the most thorough of all since it took place over a period of 6 years and included testimony from witnesses that had known her throughout her life. The hearings took place at several cities and included people from all walks of life. Friends who had known her as a child, knights who had fought with her, and most of the surviving priests who had been involved in the trial conducted by the English. As with the trial records, some of the most convincing testimony comes from those who had been her enemies who at this point in time had great remorse for being a part of her trial and execution.
What about the quotes
you include, are they also historically accurate? Most of them are the exact quotes that
she was recorded as saying, translated, of course,
into English. There are a couple in Maid
of Heaven that I had to paraphrase but even those I made as close as possible
to what she actually did say. I have
always felt that one of the best ways to learn history is to read what people
who were there actually said. That way
you are getting the history straight from the source. The other part I like about using actual
quotes is it allows the personality of the person to come through which gives
you the best idea of who they really were.
In the case of Saint Joan, her quotes are simple amazing in terms of the
wisdom they contain and the wonderful person that shines through as you read
them.
Do you really believe that she communicated with God’s Angels? Actually, it was one angel, the archangel Michael, and two Saints, Margaret and Catherine who were both martyrs. Yes, I do believe that she communicated with them because she said she did and so did the people closest to her. I also think it is the only logical explanation to explain how she was able to accomplish all that she did. Only God could take an uneducated country girl and turn her into one of the greatest military commanders in the history of the World. This is my opinion, of course, but it becomes clear when you study the history that virtually everyone who lived during her time believed the same thing, including her enemies.
Not everyone believes
as you do. Some say she was just crazy.
Crazy people do not behave the way she behaved or accomplish what she
was able to accomplish. There have been
numerous mental-health professionals who have examined her case and none have
correlated the way she is documented to have behaved
as being consistent with any serious mental illness. My own father was on the faculty of the
Was Joan really in command of the Army, or was she just a figurehead as some have argued? I do not know of any reputable historian who has tried to say such a thing because there is no historical evidence to back it up. The actual quotes by the men who fought under her make it very clear that she was in supreme command of the French army. The Duke of Alencon served as the highest-ranking commander under her and he also made it clear that she was the supreme commander. Saint Joan actually commanded in a manner very similar to another great general I have spent many hours studying: Robert E. Lee. Both were brilliant strategists who allowed their subordinate commanders a great deal of discretion in how they conducted the fighting of the battle. Saint Joan actually engaged in more hands on leadership than Lee since she personally led the charge on many occasions. The bottom line on this comparison is that if you are going to say that Saint Joan was not in complete command then you might as well say the same thing about Lee; which would be ludicrous.
What were her
greatest military victories? The battles
of
Patay was remarkable because of the overwhelming margin of
victory that she achieved in the battle.
The French suffered few losses while the English army was
annihilated with losses in the thousands. Patay is often compared with
Why was she defeated
at
Did Charles betray
her then? He certainly did not show
her the same loyalty that she showed to him.
The main thing to learn and remember about Charles is that he was very
selfish and his foremost priority was always his own survival. Years later when
his own son began to have military success Charles quickly removed him from
command fearing he would become too popular.
I think it is his selfishness more than anything else that caused him to
make bad decisions that resulted in the defeat at
How was she captured? She had predicted when she first started that she would only last about a year but I think she was hoping she would be killed in battle. She was told by her Voices several months before her capture that she would be captured but they did not tell her when or where. She later said that if she had known the exact time she would not have gone into battle but she also said: “Nevertheless I would have obeyed the command in the end, whatever the outcome.” The way she submitted to God’s will here probably impresses me more than anything else she ever did. She had to have incredible faith and courage knowing what she would most likely face in the hands of her enemies.
How long was she a
prisoner? About a year total. First, she was a prisoner of the Burgundians
who were the French that were politically allied with
the English. She was
probably not treated too badly by the Burgundians while they held her prisoner. During this period, she also had hope that
she would be rescued or ransomed, a common practice in
her day. After about six months, she was sold to the English who transferred her to
So the English
actually bought her?
The Duke of Bedford, who was the King of England’s uncle, and who
was the real power behind the young King, paid the Burgundian lord whose forces
captured her 10,000 francs to get her under English control. As soon as she had been
captured,
Why was Joan of Arc burned at the stake? It was completely political and most reputable
historians accurately refer to it as murder.
The English had been fighting the French for almost 100 years and were
just about to win the War, which would have given them control of all of
How long did her
trial last? Including the
preliminaries it was about 4 or 5 months during which
she lived in a prison cell chained up and guarded by rough English
soldiers. The English put pressure on
Cauchon, the bishop in charge of the trial, to speed things up but Cauchon
wanted to create a legal basis for killing her, probably to protect himself
with the Church. The difficulty that he
had in doing so is seen in the records from the
trial. I don’t think Cauchon expected
her to do as well as she did in defending herself against his handpicked judges
so he used every trick he could to concoct charges against her. When this trial was overturned and nullified
by the Church twenty years later it was Cauchon who
was accused of heresy for his part and Saint Joan who was declared to be a
martyr.
Was she actually raped before she was executed? I really hope that she was not raped because it was bad enough everything else that they did to her. The truth is that no one really knows for sure but we do have the statement from Saint Joan herself just before she was executed that seems to indicate that she was not raped: “Alas, that my body, clean and whole, and never corrupted, must today to ashes be turned.” She was definitely threatened with rape and she had stated to one of the priests who frequently visited her in prison that a great English lord had tried to rape her but I don’t know of any reputable historian who thinks she was actually raped.
When did Joan become a
Saint? She officially became a Saint
of the Catholic Church in 1920 but I think almost all of the people who knew
her looked at her as a Saint when she was alive. When I wrote Maid of Heaven, I decided the
most convincing proof of her saintliness came from those who were her enemies
and who took part in her execution. The
recorded history contains the instances I refer to where her executioner and an
English soldier both suffered great remorse for taking part because they said
they had burned a saint. The
overwhelming consensus among the hostile crowd that witnessed the execution was
also the same. As I have said before,
some of the most compelling historical evidence is when someone’s enemies say
something positive about a person and Saint Joan’s enemies made it clear that
they believed she was a Saint.
Do you like any of the movies that have been made about Joan of Arc? Most of the recent ones I have seen are not historically accurate. Some are better than others. The best I have seen from a historical standpoint is the classic film with Ingrid Bergman by Victor Fleming. It is not perfect but it stays true to the story for the most part. On the other hand, the recent movie The Messenger is horrible from a historical standpoint. I think The Messenger is an example of what happens when you try to explain the life of Saint Joan apart from God, which of course is the politically correct thing that moviemakers try to do these days. It just cannot be done; at least not accurately, because, as I have referred to previously, the statements of those who knew her best said the only explanation for her great accomplishments had to be God.
Why aren’t the movies more historically accurate since her life
is, as you say, is so well documented? We
live in an age in
Excerpt
Facts/Statistics
§
Born about
§
Won her first military victory at
§
Won her greatest victory at Patay on
§
Crowned Charles VII at
§
Captured at
§
Executed
§
Officially canonized as a Saint in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.
§
Is
the youngest person in history to command the armies of a nation at only 17.
§
Mark Twain, the
famous writer said about her: “She was perhaps the only entirely unselfish
person whose name has a place in profane history.”
§
Winston Churchill
said about her: “Joan was a being so
uplifted from the ordinary run of mankind that she finds no equal in a thousand
years.”