July 26 + Saints Anne and Joachim

Joachim and Anne were the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the grandparents of Jesus. The New Testament contains no specific information about the lives of Joachim and Anne, but other documents outside of the Biblical canon do provide some details. Although these writings are not considered authoritative in the same manner as the Bible, they outline some of the Church's traditional beliefs about Joachim, Anne and their daughter.

The “Protoevangelium of James,” which was put into its final written form in the early second century, describes Mary's father Joachim as a wealthy member of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Joachim was deeply grieved, along with his wife Anne, by their childlessness. They regarded their inability to conceive a child as a punishment and a sign of shame among the tribes of Israel, so they began to devote themselves to rigorous prayer and fasting.

Once as Anne prayed beneath a laurel tree near her home in Galilee, an angel appeared and said to her, “The Lord hath heard thy prayer and thou shalt conceive and bring forth, and thy seed shall be spoken of in all the world." The angel appeared and made the same promise to Joachim.

Anne gave birth to an extraordinary child, as she was born free from original sin, known as the Immaculate Conception. Anne had promised that she would give her child to the service of God, and she kept her vow. When Mary was three years old, her parents brought her to the Temple and gave her to the service of the Temple. Here the noble child was admitted to the elect group of virgins consecrated to God.

For those who wonder what we can learn from people we know very little about and how we can honor them, we must focus on why they are honored by the Church. Whatever the detailed facts of their lives may be, the truth is that it was the parents of Mary who nurtured Mary, taught her, brought her up to be a worthy Mother of God. It was their teaching that led her to respond to God's request with faith, "be it done to me according to Thy word." It was their example of parenting that Mary must have followed as she brought up her own son, Jesus. It was their faith that laid the foundation of courage and strength that allowed her to stand by the cross as her son was crucified and still believe.