Saint Anne: Mother of the Virgin Mary and Grandmother of Christ

Saint Anne is the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary and, in the order of nature, the maternal grandmother of Jesus Christ. With her husband Saint Joachim, she belongs to the small circle of saints whose veneration is grounded not in the canonical Scriptures but in the consistent witness of the Catholic and Eastern Christian tradition from the second century onward.

The traditional account

The names of Anne and Joachim, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, are not recorded in the canonical New Testament. They are preserved in the Protoevangelium of James, a second-century Christian text that, while not canonical Scripture, has been respected throughout the Catholic and Eastern Christian tradition as a faithful preservation of apostolic memory regarding the early life of Mary.¹

The Protoevangelium records that Anne and Joachim were a pious Jewish couple of Davidic descent, married for many years without children. The childlessness was considered a public misfortune in first-century Jewish culture, and Joachim was once turned away from making an offering at the Temple because of it. The couple prayed and fasted, each making private vows of dedication. An angel of the Lord appeared to Anne with the news that she would conceive a daughter; the same angel appeared to Joachim with the same news.

The daughter, born to Anne in her old age, was Mary. According to the Protoevangelium, when Mary was three years old, Anne and Joachim presented her at the Temple in fulfillment of a vow. Mary remained at the Temple, raised in the consecrated company of the Temple virgins, until her betrothal to Saint Joseph around age twelve.

Theological significance

The Catholic tradition has always held that Anne, as the mother of Mary, was the human channel through which God prepared the immaculate vessel of the Incarnation. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception (defined by Pope Pius IX in 1854) teaches that Mary was preserved from original sin from the first moment of her conception in Anne's womb. The Catholic devotion to Saint Anne therefore has a special place in the Marian theological tradition: Anne is the woman in whose body Mary was preserved from sin.

The relationship between Anne, Mary, and Christ has been the subject of medieval Catholic devotional theology under the title Mater Misericordiae (Mother of Mercy): a three-generation Marian-grandmaternal genealogy of grace.

Veneration across the Catholic Church

The veneration of Saint Anne is attested in the Eastern Catholic Church from at least the fourth century and in the Western Catholic Church from at least the sixth. Her name is venerated:

In Brittany, France, at the shrine of Sainte-Anne-d'Auray, the principal Marian-grandmaternal pilgrimage site in France, where she is the patroness of the Breton people.
In Quebec, Canada, at the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré (founded 1658), the oldest pilgrimage site in North America and the principal Catholic pilgrimage destination of French Canada. Approximately one million pilgrims visit annually.
In Düren, Germany, where her head relic is preserved (translated there in 1500 from a Mainz church).
In Apt, Provence, France, where her body relic is preserved.

The Eastern Catholic and Orthodox tradition commemorates Anne's "Conception of the Holy Theotokos" (the conception of Mary in Anne's womb) on December 9, the Eastern equivalent of the Western Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

Patronage and devotion

Saint Anne is patron of mothers, grandmothers, women in labor, homemakers, Brittany, Quebec, Canada, and miners (from a medieval German legend). Her feast on July 26, celebrated jointly with Saint Joachim, is a Memorial in the universal Catholic Church.

Pope Saint John Paul II, in 1990, declared the day of July 26 also the "Day of Grandparents" within the wider Catholic celebration. Pope Francis formalized this designation by instituting the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly on the fourth Sunday of July, which falls near or on the feast.

The Catholic devotion to Saint Anne is particularly strong in regions of French and French-Canadian Catholic heritage. Her traditional prayer of intercession is:

Good Saint Anne, mother of the Mother of God and grandmother of our Savior, intercede for me and obtain from your daughter and Divine Grandson the grace I now seek...

For the related saint with whom Anne is universally venerated, see Saint Joachim (her husband, the father of Mary). For the Marian theology that grounds Anne's veneration, see What is the Immaculate Conception? and What are the four Marian dogmas?.

Sources

The Protoevangelium of James (also called the Infancy Gospel of James), traditionally dated to the second century, is the principal early source for the names and lives of Anne and Joachim. The text is non-canonical but has been received as devotionally reliable across the Catholic and Eastern Christian tradition. Modern critical study: Ronald F. Hock, The Infancy Gospels of James and Thomas (Polebridge Press, 1995). ↩