In the modern Western Church calendar the 26th July is kept as the Feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus Christ and the holy parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
For many centuries all over the Catholic and Byzantine world, St Anne has been one of the most intimate and popular saints. Wherever she is venerated, there is a sense of the holiness of domestic life, the goodness of the sanctity of marriage and the home and the spiritual importance of grandmothers and grandparents.
There are important shrines to St Anne throughout England, Germany, Britanny, Ireland, Quebec and in India.
The story of Saints Anne and Joachim is contained in the non-canonical ancient book of the early Church written it is believed in the 2nd century and called the Protoevangelium of St James or the fore-gospel of James.
This proto-gospel contains fragments of the New Testament accounts of the familiar Infancy Narrative of Jesus linking His birth to the House of David, and the history of devout Jewish relatives who echo both the words of St Matthew and Luke’s Gospel narratives (the shepherds and the Magi) and link these to themes from the Jewish scriptures in the Old Testament.
The devotion to St Anna (Hannah, Anne or Ana etc) seems to have begun around the areas that are linked with the birthplace of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem and Jerusalem and then are carried into the Egyptian Churches. There is a beautiful fragment of a joyful and wide-eyed St Anna the mother of the Theotokos (the God-bearer Mary) that has been discovered from Nubes.
By the late medieval period in the West, the women in the royal houses of Central Europe and the mothers of town families looked to St Anne as a model of Christian womanhood, while the poor families saw her as the model of the wise and powerful old holy woman whose life of prayer and practicality could help them in need. St Anne was equally popular among workmen, who began guilds in her name as she was among Benedictine monks and Carmelite friars who saw in her a link to her glorious daughter Our Lady.
Three beautiful artistic representations show how deeply St Anne touched the lives of the faithful.
The first is the Eastern Icon of St Anne and her daughter Blessed Virgin Mary. Here the tenderness and concern of feminine and maternal holiness are to the fore. The icon is venerated in Churches on Mothers’ Day.
The second is a configuration called “Anna Selbdritt” (Anna makes three) and the other the depiction of the ageing holy woman with her family. The first depicts the human trinity of St Anne, the Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus which was popular in German lands and which mirrors the mystery of the Blessed Trinity.
The third type of image of St Anne is wonderfully captured by the gifted Italian painter of the 1600s Caraveggio depicting grandmother Anne looking on at her daughter and the little boy Jesus. There are of course many others.
St Anne was the patron saint of women in labour, childless couples, of unmarried people looking for spouses, of cabinet makers and of families in trouble.
However, at Anima, we want to ask for St Anne’s intercession and support while we reflect upon the importance of grandmothers in the lives of their families- particularly in the way grandmothers today are so often the steady evangelisers and the leaders of the school of prayer in their grandchildren and children.
We will continue our reflections this week in conversation with Rose Bongiorno who has been a scholar, a teacher, mother of nine children, grandmother of 14 and a Catechist of the Good Shepherd. She is also the wise and gracious presence on our Anima team.
She says of grandmothers and St Anne: “Grandmothers and grandparents generally, areincredibly important in the moral, social and spiritual development of their families. They seem to be able to interact and speak to the children, even when their parents are distracted by work and busyness.”
“Grandparents seem also to provide the children with a fascinating link to history and continuity”
“Children often ask us to share our memories, and they are key links to their identities.”
“Children are also very important to grandmothers- as they take an interest and have time for our stories and memories. This is such a valuable place of learning and of appreciation.”
It is fascinating to reflect on how St Anne may have done this with both her daughter and the child Jesus.
To Christ’s ancestors let us cry out most piously,
All we who keep sacred feast,
Asking for their intercessions;
For they have received at God’s throne
Boldness and true grace divine
To have mercy upon us;
For they gave birth wondrously
To the pure Ever-virgin;
Therefore, deliver our souls from every grief,
Blest Joachim and wise Anna, true Saints of God.
(From the 4th Tone for Feast of Ss Anna & Joachim – Byzantine Liturgy).
~ Anna Krohn
Anna Krohn is a graduate in theology from the Melbourne College of Divinity. She has worked as a researcher for the Southern Cross Bioethics Institute and for the Bioethics Centre at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne.
She is the Convenor and a founding member of the Anima Women’s Network which provides encouragement, formation and interaction between women of faith. Anna has also worked with a number of other women’s organisations as a speaker and writer.
She and her husband Anthony are both on the Managing Committee of the Caroline Chisholm Library, a cultural hub in Melbourne.