MEMORIAL OF SAINTS JOACHIM AND ANNE, PARENTS OF THE MOST BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (GRANDPARENTS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST) ~ FEAST DAY: JULY 26TH: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary and grandparents of our Lord Jesus Christ. Despite the importance of their role as the maternal grandparents of our Lord Jesus Christ, we do not know too much about them. The couple’s faith and perseverance brought them through the sorrow of childlessness, to the joy of conceiving and raising the immaculate and sinless woman who would give birth to Christ. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and Saints Joachim and Anne on this special feast day, we humbly pray for all for those seeking for the fruit of the womb, may God bless them with the gift of children; we pray for safe delivery for all expectant mothers; we pray for all women, men, parents and grandparents and the elderly. We pray for the sick and dying, especially those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We pray for those going through difficulties especially during these challenging times, for the poor and the needy, for peace, love and unity in our families and our world. And we continue to pray for the Church, the Clergy, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world.🙏
SAINTS JOACHIM AND ANNE, PARENTS OF THE MOST BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (GRANDPARENTS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST): Sts. Joachim and Anne (1st c. B.C.), both of the tribe of Judah of the royal house of David, are venerated by the Church as the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary who was probably their only child and grandparents of our Lord Jesus Christ. Saint Joachim, whose name means “Yahweh prepares”, was a Shepherd from Jerusalem and probably rich. He married St. Anne from Bethlehem and Mary was promised to them by an Angel. They are honored as role models for parents. They did not have any children, and they were a rather elderly couple. They began to devote themselves to rigorous prayer and fasting, in isolation from one another and from society. They regarded their inability to conceive a child as a surpassing misfortune, and a sign of shame among the tribes of Israel. When, one day, while St. Joachim was at work in the fields as usual, an angel appeared to announce the birth of a child, and St. Anne also had the same vision. The 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.” Their moment of joy at this happy news is depicted with their embrace and kiss at the Golden Gate in Jerusalem. It was from their holy and chaste marriage that the Immaculate Conception was brought into the world.
Saints Joachim and Anne called their little girl Mary, which means “loved by God,” and then they moved to Nazareth, where they educated Mary, teaching her the law of the Lord. The Blessed Virgin Mary had good, faithful parents who raised her with a love and devotion to God like none other except Jesus Christ Himself. According to tradition, when the Child Mary was three years old, they dedicated her to God and presented her to live in the Jerusalem temple until the time of her betrothal to St. Joseph. St. Anne has been honored from early Christian times. Churches were dedicated to her honor, and the Fathers, especially of the Eastern Churches, loved to speak of her sanctity and privileges. She is often represented as teaching her little daughter to read the Scriptures. St. Anne is invoked as the protector of pregnant women, who turn to her to obtain from God three great favours: a happy birth, a healthy child, and sufficient milk to be able to raise the baby. And she is the patron of many jobs related to her duties as mother, including washerwomen and embroiderers. St. Joachim has been honored from time immemorial in the Churches of the East, and since the 6th century public devotion to him has been observed in all countries. However, as in the case of St. Anne, the Gospel tells us nothing about his life. St. Joachim only found space in the liturgical calendar in 1584: initially on March 20th, moving to Sunday in the octave of the Assumption in 1738, then to August 16th in 1913, before rejoining his holy wife on July 26th with the new liturgical calendar.
According to tradition, Sts. Joachim and Anne came from Galilee to settle in Jerusalem in their old age, and there they born and raised the Blessed Mother of God; there also they died and were buried. We do not know when St. Joachim and Anne died, and for many centuries their memory remained in the shadows. A church was built during the 4th century, possibly by St. Helena, on the site of the home of Sts. Joachim and Anne in Jerusalem. Sts. Joachim and Anne serve as role models for parents and both deserve to be honored and emulated for their devotion to God and Our Lady Mary, the Mother of God. They are Patron Saints of Holy Family; Grandparents; Marriages. Saint Anne is the Patron Saint against poverty; barren; unmarried women; wives; expectant mothers; pregnancy; women in labor; grandmothers; childless couples; and against poverty and sterility; broommakers; cabinetmakers; carpenters; childless couples; equestrians; grandmothers; grandparents; homemakers; housewives; lace makers; lace workers; lost articles; miners; mothers; old-clothes dealers; horse riders; seamstresses; stablemen; sterility; turners; Brittany; Canada; France; Quebec; archdiocese of Detroit, Michigan; diocese of Norwich, Connecticut; Santa Ana Indian Pueblo; Taos, New Mexico. Women praying to meet their future spouse often turn to St. Anne. Saint Joachim is the Patrion Saint of fathers, grandfathers, grandparents. Their feast day is July 26th.
PRAYER: O Lord, God of our Fathers, who bestowed on Saints Joachim and Anne this grace, that of them should be born the Mother of your incarnate Son, grant, through the prayers of both, that we may attain the salvation you have promised to your people. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever… Amen🙏