Today we honor the Blessed Virgin Mary’s parents and Jesus’ grandparents. Their names are not recorded in the Gospels but come from a mid-second-century apocryphal document, the Gospel of James. Though this “gospel” has been deemed inauthentic, it is the earliest record of the Blessed Mother’s parents. We can at least presume that the names Joachim and Anne are correct. Other apocryphal literature also contains uncertain information about these holy parents and grandparents.
According to tradition, Joachim was a wealthy and generous man. He and his wife, Anne, were advanced in years and childless. One day, Joachim arrived at the Temple to make an offering that Rubim, most likely a Levitical priest, rejected because Joachim was childless, which was understood as a sign of God’s disfavor. Distressed, Joachim left the Temple and studied the Scriptures to see if he could find anyone of importance who was childless. When he came upon Abraham, he recalled that Abraham was only given a child in his old age. Rather than returning home, Joachim embarked on a forty-day period of fasting and prayer in the desert, beseeching God for a child. Anne also prayed, asking God for a child.
Anne, for her part, also went to pray, asking God for a child. As she prayed, an angel appeared to her and said, “Anne, Anne, 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.” An angel also appeared to Joachim and said, “Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God has heard your prayer. Go down hence; for, behold, your wife Anne shall conceive.” Nine months later, Anne bore a daughter, and the couple named her Mary. Because of a vow they had made, when Mary was only three, Joachim and Anne brought her to the Temple where she took up residence until it was time for her to be married. She was educated by the priests and holy women and spent her days in prayer and union with God.
Though the story of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s birth and presentation in the Temple comes from apocryphal sources, the Presentation of Mary in the Temple is a liturgical feast first celebrated in the Eastern Church as early as the sixth century and the Western Church in the eleventh century, giving credence to a lived faith and liturgical acceptance of her presentation by her parents. Interestingly, in the old city of Jerusalem, there is an ancient church that still stands next to the Temple Mount in which it is believed that the Blessed Virgin Mary was born and might have lived during her early days after being presented in the Temple.
Though not much more is known about Saints Joachim and Anne, devotion to them, especially to Saint Anne, began to grow as early as the sixth century. Churches were built in her honor, prayers were offered for her intercession, devotions were formulated, and patronages were attributed to her. It wasn’t until the sixteenth century that devotion to Saint Joachim began to grow when his feast day was placed on the General Roman Calendar.
Regardless of the authenticity of the legends about Saints Joachim and Anne, we know for certain that the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Conception, had parents. They loved her, raised her, and offered her to God. Today they are saints under the names of Joachim and Anne, and the faithful continue to seek their intercession. They are especially called upon for their intercession for grandparents. In fact, on a spiritual level, just as the Blessed Virgin Mary can be seen as our spiritual mother, so also Saint Joachim and Anne can be seen as our spiritual grandparents in the order of grace.
Pray to this holy couple today, especially asking their intercession for your grandparents or your grandchildren. Ponder what it would have been like to give birth to the Mother of the Son of God. Prayerfully imagine what it would have been like to watch their daughter, who was “full of grace,” grow and mature into adulthood. Though these holy parents might not have understood all of the mysteries that surrounded their daughter, they would have known, by a grace of spiritual intuition, that their daughter was chosen by God and given a singular grace that budded forth in an abundance of virtue for all to see, especially for her parents to see.
