Today’s liturgical memorial is a rare one: instead of the usual solitary saint, we have a husband and wife, Saints Joachim and Anne, parents of Mary, hence grandparents of Jesus. They are presented by the Church as model for Christian spouses and parents. The Sacred Scriptures do not even mention them but some stories of them are told in the Protoevangelium of James. Here’s one example:
“Joachim is said to have been born at Nazareth and married Anne when he was still a young man. He was a rich farmer who possessed great herds. Because they had no children for many years, Joachim was publicly mocked--to be childless was considered a punishment for unworthiness. One day the Temple priest even refused Joachim's offering of a lamb. In a last prayer for a child, he withdrew to the desert and fasted for forty days.
Anne's father is said to have been a nomadic Jew named Akar, who brought his wife to Nazareth for their daughter's birth. Anne, too, after her marriage to Joachim, was saddened that God had not blessed them with children. She would weep and pray for God to answer her prayer. One day as she was praying beneath a laurel tree feeling that even Joachim had abandoned her (he was in the desert), an angel is said to have told her that God had heard her prayers. She would have a child who would be praised throughout the world. Anne replied, "As my God lives, if I should conceive either a boy or a girl, the child shall be a gift to my God, serving Him in holiness throughout the whole of its life."
Then the angel told her to run and meet her husband, who in obedience to another angel, was returning with his herds. They met by the Golden Gate and from that time Anne prepared for the blessed event. Saint Anne gave birth to Mary when she was about 40. It is said that Anne kept her promise and placed Mary in the service of God at the Temple when she was but three years old. According to tradition, she and Joachim lived to see the birth of Jesus and Joachim died just after seeing his divine grandchild presented in the Temple at Jerusalem, and was buried in Jerusalem.”
For more on these saints, you can click here.
The alternative reading in the liturgy praises them in these words from the Book of Sirach. "Now will I praise those godly men, our ancestors, each in his own time. These also were godly men whose virtues have not been forgotten. Their wealth remains in their families, their heritage with their descendants. Through God's covenant with them their family endures, their posterity, for their sake. And for all time their progeny will endure, their glory will never be blotted out. Their bodies are peacefully laid away, but their name lives on and on. At gatherings their wisdom is retold, and the assembly proclaims their praise." (Sir 44:1, 10-15)
For our prayers today, we can ask their intercession for the needs of grandparents, parents and spouses awaiting the birth of their children.
“Joachim is said to have been born at Nazareth and married Anne when he was still a young man. He was a rich farmer who possessed great herds. Because they had no children for many years, Joachim was publicly mocked--to be childless was considered a punishment for unworthiness. One day the Temple priest even refused Joachim's offering of a lamb. In a last prayer for a child, he withdrew to the desert and fasted for forty days.
Anne's father is said to have been a nomadic Jew named Akar, who brought his wife to Nazareth for their daughter's birth. Anne, too, after her marriage to Joachim, was saddened that God had not blessed them with children. She would weep and pray for God to answer her prayer. One day as she was praying beneath a laurel tree feeling that even Joachim had abandoned her (he was in the desert), an angel is said to have told her that God had heard her prayers. She would have a child who would be praised throughout the world. Anne replied, "As my God lives, if I should conceive either a boy or a girl, the child shall be a gift to my God, serving Him in holiness throughout the whole of its life."
Then the angel told her to run and meet her husband, who in obedience to another angel, was returning with his herds. They met by the Golden Gate and from that time Anne prepared for the blessed event. Saint Anne gave birth to Mary when she was about 40. It is said that Anne kept her promise and placed Mary in the service of God at the Temple when she was but three years old. According to tradition, she and Joachim lived to see the birth of Jesus and Joachim died just after seeing his divine grandchild presented in the Temple at Jerusalem, and was buried in Jerusalem.”
For more on these saints, you can click here.
The alternative reading in the liturgy praises them in these words from the Book of Sirach. "Now will I praise those godly men, our ancestors, each in his own time. These also were godly men whose virtues have not been forgotten. Their wealth remains in their families, their heritage with their descendants. Through God's covenant with them their family endures, their posterity, for their sake. And for all time their progeny will endure, their glory will never be blotted out. Their bodies are peacefully laid away, but their name lives on and on. At gatherings their wisdom is retold, and the assembly proclaims their praise." (Sir 44:1, 10-15)
For our prayers today, we can ask their intercession for the needs of grandparents, parents and spouses awaiting the birth of their children.
