Mary's Castle Library

THE CATHOLIC FEAST

DATE: JULY 26

NAME: SAINT JOACHIM 

AND SAINT ANNE

[Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary And Grandparents Of Jesus]

THEIR LIFE PROFILE 

According to tradition, Saint Anne was born in Bethlehem and married Joachim of Nazareth, both descendants of David. Together with her husband, Anne raised Mary to be a paragon of virtue and entrusted her to the temple as a child. It appears that she died at an advanced age. 

 

The same tradition tells of Joachim, a wealthy livestock owner whose marriage to Anne did not produce offspring until late. This was regarded as a lack of heavenly blessing, resulting in Joachim's sacrifice being refused at the temple. Remembering the son granted to Abraham late in life, Joachim resolved to go into the desert and fast for forty days.

 

An angel appeared and told him of the birth of his daughter, and he went to meet his wife at the "Golden Gate" of Jerusalem.

 

As it turned out, however, the couple were to be blessed abundantly.  An angel revealed this to Anne when he appeared to her and prophesied that all generations would honor their future child: “The Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive and shall bring forth, and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.”

 

After Mary's birth,  Anne “made a sanctuary” in the infant girl's room, and “allowed nothing common or unclean” on account of the special holiness of the child. When she was one year old, her father “made a great feast, and invited the priests, and the scribes, and the elders, and all the people of Israel.”

 

“And Joachim brought the child to the priests,” the account continues, “and they blessed her, saying: 'O God of our fathers, bless this child, and give her an everlasting name to be named in all generations'. And he brought her to the chief priests; and they blessed her, saying: 'O God most high, look upon this child, and bless her with the utmost blessing,

which shall be forever.'”

 

PRAYER TO SAINT JOACHIM AND SAINT ANNE

Great and glorious patriarch, Saint Joachim, and good Siant Anne, what joy is mine when I consider that you were chosen among all God’s holy ones to assist in the fulfillment of the mysteries of God, and to enrich our earth with the great Mother of God, Mary most holy. 

 

By this singular privilege, you have become most powerful with both the Mother and Her Son, to be able to obtain for us the graces that are needful to us.

 

With great confidence, I have recourse to your mighty protection, and I commend to you all my needs, both spiritual and temporal, and those of my family. 

 

Especially do I entrust to your keeping the particular favor that I desire and look for from your intercession.

And since you were a perfect pattern of the interior life, obtain for me the grace to pray earnestly, and never to set my heart on the passing goods of this life. Give me a lively and enduring love for Jesus and Mary. 

 

Obtain for me also a sincere devotion and obedience to the Holy Church and the sovereign pontiff who rules over her, so that I may live and die in faith and hope and perfect charity. Let me ever invoke the holy Names of Jesus and Mary. And may I thus be saved. Amen.

 

            SAINT JOACHIM AND SAINT ANNE,             

PRAY FOR US. AMEN!