From the desk of the Tar Heel disciple:
July 24, 2025
The feast day of St. Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is celebrated by the Catholic Church on July 26. Since 1969, the Church has also venerated her husband, St. Joachim on the same day. Neither saint is mentioned in the Gospels, but devotion to St. Anne is documented as early as the fourth century. The most ancient source of information about this couple is probably derived from the mid-second century apocryphal Protoevangelium of St. James, which, of course, has never been accepted by the Catholic Church as part of the New Testament. But the stories told therein have had great influence in the development of devotion and legends. In the sixth century, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (482-565) built a church in her honor in Constantinople, and in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, devotion to her rapidly spread in the West. Numerous alleged relics of St. Anne were brought to Europe at this time by returning Crusaders. 
Devotion to and preaching about St. Anne grew to such an extent that some maintained that she conceived and gave birth to her daughter, Mary, while maintaining her virginity. This error was condemned by the Church in 1677. Another legend related to St. Anne places her in southern France in her old age, under the protection of Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. By the thirteenth century, her feast was celebrated in parts of the West. Devotion to St. Joachim came much later. A feast day, March 20, was assigned to him only in 1584 and was subsequently changed from that date on two more occasions, until it was combined with that of St. Anne in 1969. Together, these saints, parents of Mary and grandparents of the Lord Jesus, provide a splendid opportunity for us to pray for our parents and grandparents, living and deceased. While the name of Ann(e) is still widely given, Joachim is less common in English. (It is much more popular in Spanish--Joaquín.)
Medals and Statues of St. Anne often portray her teaching her daughter the Scriptures, e.g.,
See Saint Anne Statues and Medals
Only a few miles east of Quebec City in Canada, located on the St. Lawrence River, the famous shrine of Saint Anne de Beaupré, where many miraculous healings have been reported since the seventeenth century, still welcomes hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year. The Servant of God Father Thomas F. Price, also known as the “Tar Heel Apostle,” made several pilgrimages and retreats there. It is holy ground!
