Anne

About Anne

Anne is traditionally named as Mary's mother. Her story reaches readers through apocryphal writings rather than a contemporary account of her life. The Catholic Encyclopedia places the earliest form of the Infancy Gospel of James around AD 150.

In that later narrative, Anne grieves because she has no child and prays in her garden. An angel announces that her prayer has been heard, and she promises to dedicate the child to God. She gives birth to Mary and cares for her during her early years. When Joachim proposes taking Mary to the Temple, Anne asks to wait until the child is three, so that she will not long for her parents. The account portrays both religious devotion and a mother's attention to a young child's attachment to home.

A church was dedicated to her under the emperor Justinian, and her cult developed in the Christian East. Her feast spread through the Western Church and was extended to the universal Latin Church in 1584.

Anne's place in Christian memory continues to draw attention to relationships between generations. In his Angelus address of 25 July 1999, John Paul II explicitly identified the apocryphal basis of the tradition about Mary's parents. He used their commemoration to discuss older people's experience, their contribution to family life, and the danger of valuing people only for their economic usefulness. This reception gives Anne a continuing place in reflection on care for older relatives without supplying the missing facts of her own life.

Prayers for Anne