Saint Anne

Saint Anne
St. Anne, fresco from Faras, 7th century
Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church; Orthodox Church; Anglicanism; Eastern Catholic Churches
Feast	July 26
Attributes	Book, door, with Mary, Jesus, or Joachim
Patronage	carpenters; childless people; equestrians; grandparents; homemakers/housewives; lace makers; lost articles; miners; mothers; moving house; old-clothes dealers; poverty; pregnancy; seamstresses; stablemen; sterility; turners.

This article is about the mother of the Virgin Mary. For other uses of the term, see Saint Anne (disambiguation).

According to Christian tradition, Saint Anne (also Ann or Anna) of David's house and line, was the mother of the Virgin Mary. Her name, Anne, is a Greek rendering of a Hebrew name, Hannah meaning "Grace". Mary's mother is not named in the canonical Gospels. According to the apocryphal Gospel of James, Anne and her husband Joachim, after years of childlessness, were visited by an angel who told them that they would conceive a child. Anne promised to dedicate the child to God's service. Joachim and Anne are believed to have given Mary to the service of the Second Temple when the girl was three years old. Anne is a patron saint of Quebec and Brittany, and patroness of women in labor and miners.

Source of Anne's story

All information on the parents of Mary, the mother of Jesus, Joachim and Anne, is found in apocryphal literature, the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Protoevangelium of James. The earliest is the Protevangelium of James is dated to about 150, the other two seemed to have based their writings on this piece.

The Protoevangelium was venerated by the Greeks, Syrians, Copts, and Arabs. Portions of it were read on the feasts of Mary. Only after Jacobus de Voragine incorporated it into his Golden Legend in the thirteenth century did the church fathers accept it. After which Anne became very popular in the Latin church as well.

Saint Anne's story

In the sources, Anne's story (or Hannah) is told that she and Joachim were married many years in Nazareth and were childless. When Joachim went to offer sacrifices in the temple he was rejected because he was unworthy as he had no offspring. Joachim was brokenhearted and went to the mountains to take up his cause with God. Hannah worried about the absence of her husband, and learning of his mountain prayer, joined .

lived a rich and pious couple, Joachim and Hannah. They were childless. When on a feast day Joachim presented himself to offer sacrifice in the temple, he was repulsed by a certain Ruben, under the pretext that men without offspring were unworthy to be admitted. Whereupon Joachim, bowed down with grief, did not return home, but went into the mountains to make his plaint to God in solitude. Also Hannah, having learned the reason of the prolonged absence of her husband, cried to the Lord to take away from her the curse of sterility, promising to dedicate her child to the service of God. Their prayers were heard; an angel came to Hannah and said: "Hannah, the Lord has looked upon thy tears; thou shalt conceive and give birth and the fruit of thy womb shall be blessed by all the world". The angel made the same promise to Joachim, who returned to his wife. Hannah gave birth to a daughter whom she called Miriam (Mary). Since this story is apparently a reproduction of the biblical account of the conception of Samuel, whose mother was also called Hannah, even the name of the mother of Mary seems to be doubtful.

Similar story

The story bears a superficial similarity to that of the birth of Samuel, whose mother Hannah had also been childless. Although Anne's cult receives little attention in the Western church prior to the late 12th century, dedications to Anne in the Eastern church occur as early as the 6th century. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Anne is ascribed the title Forbear of God, and both the Birth of Mary and the Dedication of Mary to the Temple are celebrated as two of the Twelve Great Feasts.

File:Anna Selbdritt 003.jpg

German, 15th century. Anne holds Mary and Christ

Iconography

In Western iconography, Anne may be recognized by her depiction in red robe and green mantle, often holding a book. Images may also be found depicting Anne holding a small Mary who in turn holds an infant Christ. Such trinitarian representations mirror similar depictions of the Trinity, and were sometimes produced as pairs.

File:Frankfurt Karmeliterkloster Annenaltar.jpg

German, 15th century, Legends of St Ann

Husbands

Varying theologians have believed either that Joachim was Anne's only husband, or that she was married three times. Ancient belief, attested to by a sermon of St John Damascene, was that Anne married once. In late medieval times, legend held that Anne was married three times, first to Joachim, then to Clopas, and finally to a man named Solomas, and that each marriage produced one daughter: Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary of Clopas, and Mary Salomae, respectively.

Virgin birth question about Anne

Similarly, in the 4th century, and then much later in the 15th century, a belief arose that Mary was born of Anne by virgin birth. Those believers included the 16th century mystic Valentine Weigel who claimed Anne conceived Mary by the power of the Holy spirit. This belief was also condemned as an error by the Catholic Church in 1677. Instead, the Church teaches that Mary was conceived in the normal fashion, but that she was miraculously preserved from original sin in order to make her fit to bear Christ. The conception of Mary free from original sin is termed the Immaculate Conception—which is frequently confused with the Virgin Birth or Incarnation of Christ.

Presentation of Mary at the Temple

Two views

The iconographic subject of Joachim and Anne The Meeting at the Golden Gate fit both views, and was a regular component of artistic cycles of the "Life of the Virgin." The couple meet at the "Golden Gate" of Jerusalem and embrace. They are aware of Anne's pregnancy, of which they have been separately informed by an archangel. For those believing in the virgin birth of Mary, this moment stood for her conception, and the feast was celebrated on the same day as the Immaculate Conception. The Birth of Mary, the Presentation of Mary and the Marriage of the Virgin were usual components of cycles of the Life of the Virgin in which Anne is normally shown.

Presence in the life of Mary and Jesus

Anne is never shown as present at the Nativity of Christ, but is frequently shown with the infant Christ in various subjects. She is normally shown as present at the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple and the Circumcision of Christ. There was a tradition that she went (separately) to Egypt and rejoined the Holy Family after their Flight to Egypt. Anne is not seen with the adult Christ, so was regarded as having died during the youth of Jesus. Anne is also shown as the matriarch of the Holy Kinship, the extended family of Jesus, a popular subject in late medieval Germany.

The feast day of Anne is July 26 (Western calendar) and July 25 (Eastern calendar).

Patronage

File:Anna Burgos.JPG

Spain 15th century

Saint Anne is patron of the following places: Canada; France; Brittany; Quebec; Adjuntas, Puerto Rico; Detroit, Michigan; Norwich, Connecticut; Santa Ana Pueblo; Seama, New Mexico; Taos, New Mexico; Marsaskala; and the Philippines.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Example of pairing of figures in fresco, left, Saint Anne with Mary and Jesus

• De Voragine, Jacobus; William Granger Ryan, trans. The Golden Legend II, Princeton University Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0691031781
• Kreitzer, Beth. Mary's Mother: Saint Anne in Late Medieval Europe. Book Review, an article from: Church History [HTML] (Digital), December 1, 2005. Thomson Gale publ. vol. 74 Issue: 4 p. 842.
• Nixon, Virginia. Mary's Mother: Saint Anne in Late Medieval Europe, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0271024660
• Procopius. H. B. Dewing and Glanville Downey, trans. On Buildings: General Index, Loeb Classical Library, No. 343, Volume I, 1940. ISBN 978-0674993785 ASIN B000TDTH9
• The Protoevangelium of James saints.sqpn.com Retrieved May 21, 2008.
• This article incorporates content from the 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia, a publication in the public domain.

External links

All retrieved May 21, 2008.

• Catholic Encyclopedia 1913 www.newadvent.org
• Eternal Word Television Network www.ewtn.com
• Patron Saints Index www.catholic-forum.com
• Template:1913C.E.
• Catholic Herald article www.catholicherald.com
• Brief American Catholic article on "Sts. Joachim and Ann" www.americancatholic.org

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