Saint Anne

Saint Anne (also known as Anna or Ann) is venerated in Christian tradition as the mother of the Virgin Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus Christ. Her name derives from the Hebrew Hannah, meaning 'grace.' Anne is not mentioned by name in the canonical Gospels; knowledge of her life comes principally from the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James, written around 150 AD, and related texts including the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary. According to these ancient sources, Anne was born in Bethlehem of Judea and married Joachim, a devout and prosperous man, with whom she shared a life in Nazareth. For twenty years the couple remained childless, enduring social stigma and personal grief. In her sorrow, Anne fervently prayed and vowed to dedicate any child God might grant to divine service. An angel appeared to both Anne and Joachim separately, announcing that they would conceive a daughter they were to name Mary. Anne conceived and, honoring her vow, eventually presented the child at the Temple in Jerusalem when Mary was three years old. Devotion to Saint Anne arose earliest in the Eastern Church, where she and Joachim are venerated as the 'Ancestors of God.' Emperor Justinian I built a church dedicated to her in Constantinople around 550 AD, and her relics were transferred to Constantinople in 710. In the Western Church veneration spread more gradually, accelerating after the Crusades brought her story to Europe. Pope Urban VI introduced her feast to England in 1378, and Pope Gregory XIII extended it to the universal Latin Church in 1584, establishing July 26 as the feast of Saints Anne and Joachim. Pope Julius II decreed in 1506 that her relics were to remain in Düren, Germany, making it a major pilgrimage site. Major shrines in her honor include Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré in Quebec, Canada, and Ste-Anne-d'Auray in Brittany, France. She is patron of grandmothers, mothers, childless couples, women in labor, miners, lacemakers, seamstresses, and is a patron saint of Canada and Brittany.