fficial feasts used to be an important part of the human community. People would gather together to remember something sacred, express their faith and hope for the future, and / or just be together formally, recognizing each other as being part of a shared community. Few things express a desire for shared companionship and social intimacy more than dining together. Sadly, the gathering together for feasting is increasingly a relic of the past – at least here in the West.
It need not be so! Today we will remember the ancient feasts.
The Feast Day of St. Anne and St. Joachim
This is a Christian religious celebration of St. Anne and St. Joachim, the mother and father of Mary and the maternal grandparents of Jesus Christ. The oldest and most influential source of information for their lives comes from the non-canonical Gospel of James, dating to around 150 AD. Anne is the 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. Joachim is the patron saint of fathers, grandfathers, grandparents, married couples, cabinet makers, and linen traders.
Greek icon of Saint Anne with the Virgin, by Angelos Akotantos
According to apocrypha, as well as Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary’s mother is not named in the Bible’s canonical gospels. In writing, Anne’s name and that of her husband Joachim come only from New Testament apocrypha, of which the Gospel of James (written perhaps around 150 AD) seems to be the earliest that mentions them. The mother of Mary is mentioned but not named in the Quran.
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, first written in Koine Greek 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 and condemned as untrustworthy by Pope Damasus I, Pope Innocent I, 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, which popularised most of its stories.
Ancient belief, attested to by a sermon of John of Damascus, was that Anne married once. The sister of Saint Anne was Sobe, mother of Elizabeth. In the fifteenth century, the Catholic cleric Johann Eck related in a sermon that St Anne’s parents were named Stollanus and Emerentia. Frederick George Holweck, writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1907) regards this genealogy as spurious.
In the 4th century and then much later in the fifteenth century, a belief arose that Mary was conceived of Anne without original sin. This belief in the Immaculate Conception 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 of the Incarnation (Mary’s virgin birth of Jesus), was made dogma in the Catholic church by Pope Pius IX‘s papal bull, IneffabilisDeus, in 1854. The 13th century Speculum Maius of Vincent of Beauvais incorporates information regarding the life of Saint Anne from an earlier work by Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim Abbey.
In the Eastern church, the veneration of Anne herself may go back as far as c. 550, when Justinian built a church in Constantinople in her honour. The earliest pictorial sign of her veneration in the West is an eighth-century fresco in the church of Santa Maria Antiqua, Rome. The Feast of the Conception of the Virgin Mary had reached southern Italy by the ninth century. In the Latin Church St. Anne was not venerated, except, perhaps, in the south of France, before the thirteenth century. A shrine at Douai, in northern France, was one of the early centres of devotion to St. Anne in the West.
The Anna Selbdritt was a type of iconography depicting the three 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, 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 the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, 8 September. In 1892, Pope Leo XIII sent a relic of St Anne to the church.
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 Catholic Church, the Feast of Saints Anne and Joachim is celebrated on 26 July.
The alleged relics of St. Anne were brought from the Holy Land to Constantinople 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, 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 decreed that her relics should be kept there.
The Church of Saint Anne in Beit Guvrin National Park was built by the Byzantines and the Crusaders in the 12th century, known in Arabic as Khirbet (lit. ’ruin’) Sandahanna, the mound of Maresha being called Tell Sandahanna. Saint Anne is the patroness of unmarried women, housewives, women in labour 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.
In John Everett Millais‘s 1849–50 work, Christ in the House of His Parents, Anne is shown in her son-in-law Joseph’s carpentry shop caring for a young Jesus who had cut his hand on a nail. She joins her daughter 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 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 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. Artworks 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 Birth of Mary, the Presentation of Mary 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 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 who was reputed in the fifteenth 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.W
The story of Joachim, his wife Anne (or Anna), and the miraculous birth of their child Mary, the mother of Jesus, was told for the first time in the 2nd-century apocryphal infancy-gospel the Gospel of James (also called the Protoevangelium of James). Joachim was a rich and pious man, who regularly gave to the poor; however, Charles Souvay, writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia, says that the idea that Joachim possessed large herds and flocks is doubtful. At the temple, Joachim’s sacrifice was rejected, as the couple’s childlessness was interpreted as a sign of divine displeasure. Joachim consequently withdrew to the desert, where he fasted and did penance for 40 days. Angels then appeared to both Joachim and Anne to promise them a child.
Joachim later returned to Jerusalem and embraced Anne at the city gate, located in the Walls of Jerusalem. An ancient belief held that a child born of an elderly mother who had given up hope of having offspring was destined for great things. Parallels occur in the Hebrew Bible in the case of Sarah, the wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac; Hannah, the mother of Samuel; and in the New Testament in the case of the parents of John the Baptist. The cycle of legends concerning Joachim and Anne was included in the Golden Legend (around 1260) by Jacobus de Voragine. This cycle remained popular in Christian art until the Council of Trent (1545–1563) restricted the depiction of apocryphal events.
No liturgical celebration of Saint Joachim was included in the Tridentine calendar. It was added to the General Roman Calendar in 1584, for celebration on 20 March, the day after the feast day of Saint Joseph. In 1738, it was transferred to the Sunday within the Octave of the Assumption of Mary. As part of his effort to allow the liturgy of Sundays to be celebrated, Pope Pius X (term 1903–1914) transferred it to 16 August, the day after the Assumption, so Joachim may be remembered in the celebration of Mary’s triumph. On May 28, 1906, Pope Saint Pius X introduced the indulgence of 300 days, that can be obtained once a day, for each invocation of “Saint Joachim, spouse of Saint Anne and father of the Blessed Virgin”.
Symbols associated with Saint Joachim include a book or scroll representing linen makers, a shepherd’s staff for the Christian Word, and a basket of doves representing peace. He is almost always clothed in green, the color of hope. The name of the San Joaquin River dates to 1805–1808, when Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga was surveying east from Mission San José to find possible sites for a mission. The name was in common use by 1810.
What is something you can eat to celebrate the Feast Day of St. Anne?
After looking into the tradition of the feast day, I learned that shellfish is a traditional meal used to celebrate this feast day, particularly in France. I found a recipe that I hope you will be able to use and enjoy!
Mussels in the shell – 1 pound Shrimp – 1 pound (Get Gulf Shrimp if you live near Florida!) Butter -3 tablespoons Onion, finely chopped — 1 Garlic, minced — 3 cloves White wine — 1 cup (Muscadet would be most authentic but Sauvignon Blanc will work fine) Parsley, finely chopped — 1/4 cup Tomatoes – 1 Large or 2-3 smaller ones, diced Salt and pepper — to taste
Directions
Peel the shrimp and wash the mussels, scrubbing them to remove the “beard.” Heat the butter in a large pot. Saute the onions and garlic for a few minutes. Stir in the tomato and parsley. Add the mussels, shrimp, and wine, stirring gently so as not to break the shells. Cover the pot and let it steam for a minute or two. Stir about every minute so the shrimp will cook evenly. Season with salt and pepper.
It should be ready in about 4-5 minutes. Make sure to save the sauce to dip bread in. Technically, moules marinières should be just mussels but some people don’t exactly love them so we added shrimp to be safe.
What is a prayer to say when celebrating the Feast Day of St. Anne and St. Joachim?
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