According to
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
apocrypha
Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...
l and
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
ic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
and the maternal grandmother of
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
. Mary's mother is not named in the
canonical gospels
Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...
. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband
Joachim come only from
New Testament apocrypha
The New Testament apocrypha (singular apocryphon) are a number of writings by early Christians that give accounts of Jesus and his teachings, the nature of God, or the teachings of his apostles and of their lives. Some of these writings were cit ...
, of which the
Gospel of James
The Gospel of James (or the Protoevangelium of James) is a second-century infancy gospel telling of the miraculous conception of the Virgin Mary, her upbringing and marriage to Joseph, the journey of the couple to Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, a ...
(written perhaps around 150) seems to be the earliest that mentions them.
The mother of Mary is mentioned but not named in the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...
.
Christian tradition
The story is similar to that of
Samuel, whose mother
Hannah ( he, ''Ḥannāh'' "favour, grace"; etymologically the same name as Anne) had also been childless. The
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception.
It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...
was eventually made dogma by the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
following an increased devotion to Anne in the 12th century. Dedications to Anne in
Eastern Christianity
Eastern Christianity comprises Christian traditions and church families that originally developed during classical and late antiquity in Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Northeast Africa, the Fertile Crescent and ...
occur as early as the 6th century. In the
Eastern Orthodox tradition, Anne and
Joachim are ascribed the title ''Ancestors of God'', and both the
Nativity of Mary
The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Nativity of Mary, the Marymas or the Birth of the Virgin Mary, refers to a Christian feast day celebrating the birth of Mary, mother of Jesus.
The modern canon of scripture does not record Mary's bi ...
and the
Presentation of Mary
The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known in the East as The Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, is a liturgical feast celebrated on November 21 by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and some Anglo-Catholic Churches.
The feas ...
are celebrated as two of the twelve
Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the feast of the Resurrection of Jesus, called Pascha (Easter), is the greatest of all holy days and as such it is called the "feast of feasts". Immediately below it in importance, there is a group of Twelve Great F ...
. The
Dormition of Anne is also a minor feast in Eastern Christianity. In
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...
Protestantism
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
, it is held that
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
chose to enter religious life as an
Augustinian friar Augustinian may refer to:
*Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine
*Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs
*Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo
* Canons Regular of Sain ...
after invoking St. Anne while endangered by lightning.
In Islam
Anne ( ar, حنة, ''Ḥannah'') is also revered in
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
, recognized as a highly spiritual woman and as the mother of Mary.
She is not named in the Quran, where she is referred to as "the wife of Imran". The Quran describes her remaining childless until her old age. One day, Hannah saw a bird feeding its young while sitting in the shade of a tree, which awakened her desire to have children of her own. She prayed for a child and eventually conceived; her husband,
Imran, died before the child was born. Expecting the child to be male, Hannah vowed to dedicate him to isolation and service in the
Second Temple
The Second Temple (, , ), later known as Herod's Temple, was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem between and 70 CE. It replaced Solomon's Temple, which had been built at the same location in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherited ...
.
["O my Lord! I do dedicate into Thee what is in my womb for Thy special service: So accept this of me: For Thou hearest and knowest all things." (Quran 3:35).]
However, Hannah bore a daughter instead, and named her Mary. Her words upon delivering Mary reflect her status as a great
mystic, realising that while she had wanted a son, this daughter was God's gift to her:
Beliefs
Although the
canonical books of the New Testament never mention the mother of the Virgin Mary, traditions about her family, childhood, education, and eventual betrothal to Joseph developed very early in the history of the church. The oldest and most influential source for these is the apocryphal
Gospel of James
The Gospel of James (or the Protoevangelium of James) is a second-century infancy gospel telling of the miraculous conception of the Virgin Mary, her upbringing and marriage to Joseph, the journey of the couple to Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, a ...
, first written in
Koine Greek
Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...
around the middle of the second century AD. In the West, the Gospel of James fell under a cloud in the fourth and fifth centuries when it was accused of "absurdities" by
Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, th ...
and condemned as untrustworthy by
Pope Damasus I
Pope Damasus I (; c. 305 – 11 December 384) was the bishop of Rome from October 366 to his death. He presided over the Council of Rome of 382 that determined the canon or official list of sacred scripture. He spoke out against major heresies ( ...
,
Pope Innocent I
Pope Innocent I ( la, Innocentius I) was the bishop of Rome from 401 to his death on 12 March 417. From the beginning of his papacy, he was seen as the general arbitrator of ecclesiastical disputes in both the East and the West. He confirmed the ...
, and
Pope Gelasius I.
However, despite having been condemned by the Church, it was taken over almost ''in toto'' by another apocryphal work, the
Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (or The Infancy Gospel of Matthew) is a part of the New Testament apocrypha. In antiquity the text was called The Book About the Origin of the Blessed Mary and the Childhood of the Savior. Pseudo-Matthew is one of a g ...
, which popularised most of its stories.
Ancient belief, attested to by a sermon of
John of Damascus, was that Anne married once. In the
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...
, legend held that Anne was married three times: first to Joachim, then to
Clopas and finally to a man named Solomas and that each marriage produced one daughter: Mary, mother of Jesus,
Mary of Clopas, and
Mary Salome
In the New Testament, Salome was a follower of Jesus who appears briefly in the canonical gospels and in apocryphal writings. She is named by Mark as present at the crucifixion and as one of the Myrrhbearers, the women who found Jesus's empty ...
, respectively. The sister of Saint Anne was
Sobe
SoBe (stylized as ) is an American brand of teas, fruit-juice blends and enhanced water beverages owned by PepsiCo. The name SoBe is an abbreviation of South Beach, named after the upscale area located in Miami Beach, Florida. In the past, the ...
, mother of
Elizabeth
Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to:
People
* Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name)
* Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist
Ships
* HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships
* ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...
. In the fifteenth century, the Catholic cleric
Johann Eck
Johann Maier von Eck (13 November 1486 – 13 February 1543), often anglicized as John Eck, was a German Catholic theologian, scholastic, prelate, and a pioneer of the counter-reformation who was among Martin Luther's most important int ...
related in a sermon that St Anne's parents were named Stollanus and
Emerentia
Emerentia is the name given for a grandmother of Mary, mother of Jesus, in some European traditions and art from the late 15th century. She is not to be confused with Saint Emerentiana, a Roman martyr of the 3rd century.
Sources
There is no refer ...
.
Frederick George Holweck, writing in the ''
Catholic Encyclopedia
The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...
'' (1907) regards this genealogy as spurious.
In the 4th century and then much later in the 15th century, a belief arose that Mary was conceived of Anne without
original sin. This belief in the
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception.
It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...
states that God preserved Mary's body and soul intact and sinless from her first moment of existence, through the merits of Jesus Christ.
[ The Immaculate Conception, often confused with the ]Annunciation
The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ange ...
of the Incarnation
Incarnation literally means ''embodied in flesh'' or ''taking on flesh''. It refers to the conception and the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form or the appearance of a god as a human. If capitalized, it is the union of divinit ...
(Mary's virgin birth of Jesus), was made dogma
Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam ...
in the Catholic church by Pope Pius IX's papal bull, ''Ineffabilis'' ''Deus'', in 1854.
The thirteenth century ''Speculum Maius
''Speculum maius'' (greater Mirror) was a major encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, written by Vincent de Beauvais in the 13th century. It was a great compendium of all knowledge of the time. The work seems to have consisted of three parts: the ''Spe ...
'' of Vincent of Beauvais
Vincent of Beauvais ( la, Vincentius Bellovacensis or ''Vincentius Burgundus''; c. 1264) was a Dominican friar at the Cistercian monastery of Royaumont Abbey, France. He is known mostly for his ''Speculum Maius'' (''Great mirror''), a major work ...
incorporates information regarding the life of Saint Anne from an earlier work by Hrotsvitha
Hrotsvitha (c. 935–973) was a secular canoness who wrote drama and Christian poetry under the Ottonian dynasty. She was born in Bad Gandersheim to Saxon nobles and entered Gandersheim Abbey as a canoness. She is considered the first female wri ...
of Gandersheim Abbey.
Veneration
In the Eastern church, the veneration
Veneration ( la, veneratio; el, τιμάω ), or veneration of saints, is the act of honoring a saint, a person who has been identified as having a high degree of sanctity or holiness. Angels are shown similar veneration in many religions. Ety ...
of Anne herself may go back as far as c. 550, when Justinian built a church in Constantinople in her honor. The earliest pictorial sign of her veneration in the West is an 8th-century fresco in the church of Santa Maria Antiqua, Rome.
The Feast of the Conception of the Virgin Mary
A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes i ...
had reached southern Italy by the 9th-century. The cult of Saint Anne had developed in northern Europe by the twelfth century. A shrine at Douai, in northern France, was one of the early centers of devotion to St. Anne in the West.
The ''Anna Selbdritt'' was a type of iconography depicting the 3 generations of Saint Anne, Mary, and the child Jesus. Emphasizing the humanity of Jesus, it drew on the earlier conventions of the Seat of Wisdom
Seat of Wisdom or Throne of Wisdom (Latin: ''sedes sapientiae'') is one of many devotional titles for Mary in Roman Catholic tradition. In Seat of Wisdom icons and sculptures, Mary is seated on a throne with the Christ Child on her lap. For the ...
, and was popular in northern Germany in the 1500s.
During the High Middle Ages, Saint Anne became increasingly identified as a maritime saint, protecting sailors and fisherman, and invoked against storms.[
Two well-known shrines to St. Anne are that of Ste-Anne-d'Auray in Brittany, France; and that of Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré near the city of Québec. The number of visitors to the Basilica of Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré is greatest on St Anne's Feast Day, 26 July, and the Sunday before Nativity of the Virgin Mary, 8 September. In 1892, Pope Leo XIII sent a relic of St Anne to the church.]
In the Maltese language
Maltese ( mt, Malti, links=no, also ''L-Ilsien Malti'' or '), is a Semitic language derived from late medieval Sicilian Arabic with Romance superstrata spoken by the Maltese people. It is the national language of Malta and the only offici ...
, the Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...
galaxy is called ''It-Triq ta' Sant'Anna'', literally ''"The Way of St. Anne"''.
In Imperial Russia, the Order of St Anne was one of the leading state decorations.
In the United States, the Daughters of the Holy Spirit
The Daughters of the Holy Spirit (formerly known as the Daughters of the Holy Ghost) or the White Sisters (french: Filles du Saint-Esprit) are a Roman Catholic religious institute of women founded in France in 1706. The Religious Sisters of this ...
named the former Annhurst College
Annhurst College was a private American Catholic college in South Woodstock, Connecticut, which operated from 1941 to 1980. The school was founded and administered by the Daughters of the Holy Spirit (at that time known as the Daughters of the Ho ...
in her honor.
Commemoration
By the middle of the 7th-century, a distinct feast day, the Conception of St. Anne (Maternity of Holy Anna) celebrating the conception of Mary by Saint Anne, was observed at the Monastery of Saint Sabas. It is now known in the Greek Orthodox Church as the feast of " The Conception by St. Anne of the Most Holy Theotokos", and celebrated on 9 December. In the Roman Catholic Church, the Feast of Saints Anne and Joachim is celebrated on 26 July.
Feast Day
Roman Catholic Church
* 26 July
Eastern Orthodox Church
* 25 July: ( Dormition of the Righteous Anna, the Mother of the Most Holy Theotokos)
* 9 September: ( Holy and Righteous Ancestors of God, Joachim and Anna, Afterfeast
An Afterfeast is a period of celebration attached to one of the Great Feasts celebrated by the Orthodox Christian and Eastern Catholic Churches (somewhat analogous to what in the West would be called an Octave).
The celebration of the Great Feast ...
of the Nativity of the Mother of God)
* 9 December ( The Conception by Righteous Anna of the Most Holy Mother of God)
Anglican Communion
* 26 July: Anne is remembered (with Joachim) in the Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
with a Lesser Festival Lesser Festivals are a type of observance in the Anglican Communion, including the Church of England, considered to be less significant than a Principal Feast, Principal Holy Day, or Festival, but more significant than a Commemoration. Whereas Prin ...
on 26 July.
Lutheranism
* 26 July
Coptic Orthodox Church and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን, ''Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan'') is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Chris ...
* 7 November ( The Departure of St. Anna (Hannah), the mother of the Theotokos)
Armenian Apostolic Church
* 9 December ( The Conception by Righteous Anna of the Most Holy Mother of God)
* Tuesday
Tuesday is the day of the week between Monday and Wednesday. According to international standard ISO 8601, Monday is the first day of the week; thus, Tuesday is the second day of the week. According to some commonly used calendars, however ...
, 2nd week after Dormition of the Mother of God
The Dormition of the Mother of God is a Great Feast of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches (except the East Syriac churches). It celebrates the "falling asleep" (death) of Mary the ''Theotokos'' ("Mother of ...
(with Joachim)
Syro-Malabar Church
* 26 July (Anne and Joachim)
Syro-Malankara Catholic Church
* 9 September (Mar Joachim & Martha Anna)
Maronite Church
* 9 September (St. Anne and Joachim, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
Relics
The alleged relics of St. Anne were brought from the Holy Land to Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
in 710 and were kept there in the church of St. Sophia as late as 1333.
During the 12th and 13th centuries, returning crusaders and pilgrims from the East brought relics of Anne to a number of churches, including most famously those at Apt, in Provence, Ghent, and Chartres. St. Anne's relics have been preserved and venerated in the many cathedrals and monasteries dedicated to her name, for example in Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, Canada, Germany, Italy, and Greece in the semi-autonomous Mount Athos, and the city of Katerini. Medieval and baroque craftsmanship is evidenced in, for example, the metalwork of the life-size reliquaries containing the bones of her forearm. Examples employing folk art techniques are also known.
Düren has been the main place of pilgrimage for Anne since 1506, when Pope Julius II
Pope Julius II ( la, Iulius II; it, Giulio II; born Giuliano della Rovere; 5 December 144321 February 1513) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1503 to his death in February 1513. Nicknamed the Warrior Pope or th ...
decreed that her relics should be kept there.
Patronage
The Church of Saint Anne in Beit Guvrin National Park
Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park is a national park in central Israel, recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It is located 13 kilometers from Kiryat Gat and encompasses the ruins of Maresha, one of the important towns of Judah duri ...
was built by the Byzantines and the Crusaders
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...
in the 12th century, known in Arabic as Khirbet (lit. "ruin") Sandahanna, the mound of Maresha being called Tell Sandahanna.
Saint Anne is patroness of unmarried women, housewives, women in labor or who want to be pregnant, grandmothers, mothers and educators. She is also a patroness of horseback riders, cabinet-makers[ and miners. As the mother of Mary, this devotion to Saint Anne as the patron of miners arises from the medieval comparison between Mary and Christ and the precious metals silver and gold. Anne's womb was considered the source from which these precious metals were mined.
She is also the ]patron saint
A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...
of: Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...
(France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
), Chinandega
Chinandega () is a city and the departmental seat of Chinandega department in Nicaragua. It is also the administrative centre of the surrounding municipality of the same name. It is Nicaragua's 2nd most important city (economy) and 6th largest c ...
(Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...
), the Mi'kmaq
The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the nort ...
people of Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, Castelbuono
Castelbuono ( Sicilian: ''Castiddubbuonu'') is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, Sicily (southern Italy).
Fountain of Venere Ciprea.
It is known for its castle from which its name derives, and around which the city devel ...
(Sicily), Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
(Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
), Santa Ana (California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
), Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
(Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
), Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
(Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
), Adjuntas
Adjuntas (, ) is a small mountainside town and municipality in Puerto Rico located central midwestern portion of the island on the Cordillera Central, north of Yauco, Guayanilla, and Peñuelas; southeast of Utuado; east of Lares and Yauco; a ...
(Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
), Santa Ana, El Salvador, Santa Ana and Jucuarán (El Salvador), Berlin, New Hampshire, Berlin (New Hampshire), Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico, Santa Ana Pueblo, Seama, New Mexico, Seama, and Taos, New Mexico, Taos (New Mexico), Chiclana de la Frontera, Marsaskala, Tudela, Navarre, Tudela and Fasnia (Spain), Santa Ana, Pampanga, Town of Sta Ana Province of Pampanga, St. Anne in Molo, Iloilo City, Hagonoy, Bulacan, Hagonoy, Santa Ana, Taguig City, Saint Anne Parish and Diocesan Shrine (Malicboy), Saint Anne Shrine, Malicboy, Pagbilao, Quezon and Malinao, Albay (Philippines), Santana (district of São Paulo), Santana (Brazil), Saint Anne, Illinois, Saint Anne (Illinois), Sainte Anne Island, Baie Sainte Anne and Praslin Island (Seychelles), Bukit Mertajam and Port Klang (Malaysia), Kľúčové (Slovakia) and South Vietnam. The parish church of Vatican City is Sant'Anna dei Palafrenieri. There is a shrine dedicated to Saint Anne in the Woods in Bristol, United Kingdom.
In art
''Christ in the House of His Parents''
In John Everett Millais's 1849–50 work, ''Christ in the House of His Parents'',
Anne is shown in her son-in-law Saint Joseph, Joseph's carpentry shop caring for a young Jesus who had cut his hand on a nail. She joins her daughter Mary, Mother of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and a young boy who will later become known as John the Baptist in caring for the injured hand of Jesus.
Iconography
The subject of Joachim and Anne ''Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate, The Meeting at the Golden Gate'' was a regular component of artistic cycles of the Life of the Virgin. The couple meet at the Golden Gate (Jerusalem), Golden Gate of Jerusalem and embrace. They are aware of Anne's pregnancy, of which they have been separately informed by an archangel. This moment stood for the conception of Mary, and the feast was celebrated on the same day as the Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception.
It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...
. Art works representing the Golden Gate and the events leading up to it were influenced by the narrative in the widely read ''Golden Legend'' of Jacobus de Voragine. The Nativity of Mary, Birth of Mary, the Presentation of Mary
The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known in the East as The Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, is a liturgical feast celebrated on November 21 by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and some Anglo-Catholic Churches.
The feas ...
and the Marriage of the Virgin were usual components of cycles of the Life of the Virgin in which Anne is normally shown here.
Her emblem is a door.[ She is often portrayed wearing red and green, representing love and life.]
Anne is never shown as present at the Nativity of Jesus in art, Nativity of Christ, but is frequently shown with the infant Christ in various subjects. She is sometimes believed to be depicted in scenes of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple and the Circumcision of Christ, but in the former case, this likely reflects a misidentification through confusion with Anna the Prophetess. There was a tradition that Anne went (separately) to Egypt and rejoined the Holy Family after their Flight to Egypt. Anne is not seen with the adult Christ, so was regarded as having died during the youth of Jesus. Anne is also shown as the matriarch of the Holy Kinship, the extended family of Jesus, a popular subject in late medieval Germany; some versions of these pictorial and sculptural depictions include Emerentia
Emerentia is the name given for a grandmother of Mary, mother of Jesus, in some European traditions and art from the late 15th century. She is not to be confused with Saint Emerentiana, a Roman martyr of the 3rd century.
Sources
There is no refer ...
who was reputed in the 15th Century to be Anne's mother. In modern devotions, Anne and her husband are invoked for protection for the unborn.
Virgin and Child with Saint Anne
The role of the Messiah's grandparents in salvation history was commonly depicted in early medieval devotional art in a vertical double-Madonna arrangement known as the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne. Another typical subject has Anne teaching the Virgin Mary the Scriptures (see gallery below).
Gallery
File:Faras Saint Anne (detail).jpg, Coptic, 8th century, National Museum, Warsaw, National Museum in Warsaw
File:Anna Selbdritt 003.jpg, German, 15th century. Anne holds Mary and Christ
File:Frankfurt Karmeliterkloster Annenaltar.jpg, German, 15th century, Legends of St Anne
File:Annarelief.jpg, German, 16th century. Relief of the St. Anne's Head, Annakirche Dueren
File:Annaschrein.jpg, German, 16th century. St. Anne's Shrine, home of St. Anne's Head, Annakirche Dueren
File:Annuciation to Anne.jpg, Annunciation to Anne mosaic, 12th century, Chora Church, Istanbul
File:AnneSantiago.jpg, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne in the Cathedral Museum of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, Church of Santiago de Compostela
File:AnneMalines.jpg, A Belgian Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (labeled ''Ste Anne Trinitaire'' by the museum)
File:Eglise Sainte-Enimie statue sainte Anne Vierge Enfant.jpg, A French Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (15th-century) from Languedoc-Roussillon
File:AnneHuelgas.jpg, A Spanish Virgin and Child with Saint Anne influenced ultimately by Greek "Hodegetria" icons
File:AnnaSelbdrittMexico.jpg, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne from Oaxaca, Mexico
File:AnneGiuLungara.jpg, St. Anne Teaching the Virgin to Read, Church of San Giuseppe alla Lungara, Rome
File:Brooklyn Museum - Saint Anne (Sainte Anne) - James Tissot - overall.jpg, ''Saint Anne'', James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum
File:Anna-pic1a.jpg, Saint Anne (Die Heilige Anna) with child Jesus, by Otto Bitschnau, 1883[O. Bitschnau: Das Leben der Heiligen Gottes 1883, 558]
File:BMVB - Doménico Theotokópoulus - La Sagrada Família amb Santa Anna i Sant Joanet - 8606.jpg, ''The Holy Family with Saint Anne and Saint-Jeannet'' by El Greco (c. 1600), conserved in the Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer
File:Sankt Anna und Maria Abtei.jpg, ''Saint Anne and Virgin Mary''. Josef Moroder-Lusenberg school (c. 1890) in Badia, South Tyrol, Badia
File:Wertingen St. Martin 304.JPG, ''The instruction of Mary''. Catholic parish church of St. Martin in the district of Dillingen (district), Dillingen (Bavaria).
File:Guido Reni - Education of the Virgin - WGA19315.jpg, ''The Education of the Virgin''. Guido Reni (1640-1642)
File:Josef Winterhalder Anna unterweist Maria.jpg, ''St. Anne teaching St. Mary'', Josef Winterhalder the Younger
File:L'Education de la Vierge.jpg, ''The education of the Virgin'', Eugène Delacroix (1842)
File:Jean-Baptiste Jouvenet - The Education of the Virgin - WGA12032.jpg, ''The Education of the Virgin Mary'', Jean Jouvenet (1700)
File:Mary and St. Anne - Iglesia del Salvador - Seville.JPG, ''Mary and St. Anne''. Iglesia del Salvador, Seville
File:Heiligenblut - Pfarrkirche - Erziehung der jungen Maria.jpg, ''Education of Virgin Mary'', Parish church Saint Vinzenz
File:Saint Anne with Virgin and Child.jpg, Saint Anne with Virgin and Child, ca. 1400-1425
Music
* Marc-Antoine Charpentier composed 2 ''motets :''
** ''Pour Ste Anne,'' H.315, for 2 voices and continuo (around 1675)
** ''Canticum Annae,'' H.325, for 3 voices, 2 treble instruments, and continuo (around 1680).
* Johann Sebastian Bach composed a prelude and fugue :
** Clavier-%C3%9Cbung_III#Prelude_and_fugue BWV_552,
Prelude and Fugue in E-Flat Major, BWV 552 (published 1739)
See also
* Church of Saint Anne, Jerusalem
* Church of St. Ann (disambiguation)
* The Line of Saint Anne
* Portal:Catholic Church/Patron Archive/July 26, Portal, Catholic patron saint archive
* Statue of Saint Anne, Charles Bridge
* St Anne's College, Oxford
* Virgin and Child with Saint Anne
* Feast of the Conception of the Virgin Mary
A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes i ...
Notes
References
External links
Brief Franciscan Media article on "Sts. Joachim and Ann"
at th
Christian Iconography
website
from the Caxton translation of the Golden Legend
* [https://www.routledge.com/The-Cult-of-St-Anne-in-Medieval-and-Early-Modern-Europe/Welsh/p/book/9781138690080 Welsh, Jennifer. ''The Cult of St. Anne in Medieval and Early Modern Europe''. Routledge, 2017.]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anne
Saint Anne,
Ante-Nicene Christian female saints
1st-century BCE Jews
Angelic visionaries
Anglican saints
Christian saints from the New Testament
Family of Jesus
Joachim
Mary, mother of Jesus
New Testament apocrypha people
People of the Quran
Saints from the Holy Land
Judean people