Sts. Joachim and Anne

Their story

Joachim and Anne were the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the grandparents of Jesus. The Bible does not mention them, but their story was handed down in an ancient Christian writing from the second century called the Protoevangelium of James. According to that story, Joachim and Anne were a devout and generous couple who had been married for many years without children, a source of great sorrow and even shame in their day. Joachim went into the desert to fast and pray for forty days, while Anne prayed at home. An angel appeared to each of them and told them that they would have a child who would be blessed throughout the world. When their daughter Mary was born, they offered her to God with great joy, and when she was still a little girl they presented her in the Temple in Jerusalem. Christians in the East honored Anne from early centuries, and devotion to her later spread throughout the West, where many churches and shrines bear her name, such as Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré in Quebec. Joachim and Anne remind us of the importance of grandparents and older people, who pass on the faith to the next generation. In 2021 Pope Francis established the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, celebrated near their feast each year.