Today : the Feast of Saint Anne the mother of Holy Mary the forever Immaculate Mother of God

[ in the stained glass picture Saint Anne with new born Maria Bambina the Holy and forever Immaculate Mother of God ]

This year the Feast of Saint Anne, devoted Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, supersedes the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost and what better day to celebrate "Grandmothers' Day" than this Sunday. What makes it all the better is it is not commercialized, but it will give you the opportunity to wish all grandmothers a blessed and Happy Grandmothers Day in honor of the greatest grandmother of them all - Jesus' Own grandmother Saint Anne.

Oremus - Let us pray :

Blessed was the womb that bore thee, O Mary! Blessed was she who had the happiness of carrying thee in her arms and of watching over thy slumbers! Blessed was she who had the happiness of hearing thee call her "Mother"! Blessed was she whose glory it was to teach thee how to speak, to pray, to walk!

Glorious St. Anne, I rejoice with thee because thou wert chosen by God to fulfill so great a destiny; I take part in the joy which thrilled through thee, when, beholding Mary seated on the right hand of Jesus, higher than the elect, than the Angels, Archangels, Cherubim and Seraphim, thou didst say to thyself: " She is my daughter!" Great Saint! be thou for ever filled with joy at thy great happiness, but vouchsafe to not forget a poor sinner who cries to thee.

I ask but one grace: ask thy most admirable daughter to take me under her special protection; obtain this favor for me and I will ask no more; for if she deigns to protect me, I am sure of salvation.Amen


According to Blessed Catherine Emmerick many ancestors of Saint Anne were Essenes. Those pious people were descendants of those priests who in the time of Moses and Aaron carried the Ark of the Covenant. They received their rules in the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah.

The Essenes became numerous and fixed themselves in Mount Sinai and Mount Carmel, where Elias had seen God and had received the symbolic vision of Our Lady. Later they migrated to the region of the Jordan. They wore poor and simple apparel. They married, but observed a great purity of customs in the married state.

Even in those early times some of the forefathers of Saint Anne and other members of the Holy Family were found among them. From them sprang those called the Children of the Prophets. One of these holy men advised Anne to marry Joachim, from the tribe of David, because he saw some extraordinary thing would come from this marriage.

Anne was especially dear to her parents. Her birth was predicted by an Angel who painted a large “M” on the wall of her parents’ room. She was not strikingly beautiful, though prettier than others. She was extraordinarily pious, pure and innocent. She was the same at every age, as a maiden, as a mother and as an old woman.

When in her fifth year, Anne was taken to the Temple, as Mary was later. There she remained twelve years, returning home in her 17th year.

Their only grief was, that, although so long married, they had no issue; and a barren marriage was at that time considered a disgrace, nay almost a sign of a divine curse. Saddened by this sorrow, St. Anne, as well as her spouse, prayed with many sighs and tears, that God would take pity on them and remove the disgrace that was weighing them down. But when, after having prayed long and earnestly, they were not heard, they determined to bear patiently the will of the Almighty. As, however, St. Anne knew that God required continual prayer, and that He had not given to men a certain time to ask for grace, she ceased not to implore heaven with great confidence, for all that she believed was for His honor and her own salvation.

God answered the trusting, tearful prayer of His servant, and sent her, according to the opinion of the Holy Fathers, an angel, who announced to her that she would give birth to a child which, blessed among women, would become the mother of the long expected Saviour of the world.
It is also believed that the angel told Saint Anne the name which she should give to the blessed fruit of her womb. The same revelation was made to Saint Joachim, and the happiness of both and their gratitude to the Almighty can be easily imagined.
Their happiness was crowned when Saint Anne gave birth to her who was elected by God from all eternity to become the mother of His only Son.
Who can describe the joy with which Anne pressed her newborn child to her heart, or the solicitude and love with which she brought it up?
The knowledge that her blessed daughter was chosen by God to so great a dignity was incentive enough to have nothing undone for her welfare. The mind of the blessed child was so far beyond her years, and her whole being so angelically innocent, that her education was an easy task, and Saint Anne deemed herself the happiest mother in the world, because God had entrusted to her so priceless a child.
The graces which, through the presence of the Blessed Virgin, she received from Heaven, cannot but have been innumerable. For if, in after times, the house of Elizabeth and Zachary was, by a visit from Mary, filled with heavenly blessings, who can doubt that St. Anne, who was the mother of the Blessed Virgin, was gifted with extraordinary graces?

As one cannot give to the Blessed Virgin a higher title than to call her Mother of God, thus Saint Anne cannot be more exalted than when she is called the mother of her who bore the Son of God. And for the very reason that she was chosen to be her mother, we must believe that the Almighty favored her here upon earth, with grace above all the Saints, and raised her to high glory in Heaven.

Blessed Feast of Saint Anne , everyone ! 
Saint Anne , ora pro nobis peccatoribus