St. Joachim SAINT JOACHIM, FATHER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN Feast: July 26 Nothing is known of St. Joachim save what is told in apocryphal literature. He was a man of Galilee, husband of Anne, and both he and Anne were in the decline of life when Mary was born. Tradition relates that while Joachim was away from home he had a vision that Anne was to be blessed with a child, and that on his return home, his wife ran forth to tell of the visitation of an angel who had revealed to her the same good tidings. There was ancient belief that a child born of an elderly mother who had given up hope of having offspring was destined for some high purpose and would be blessed by all the world. Parallels occur in the Old Testament in the cases of Rachel, mother of Joseph, and that of Hannah, mother of Samuel. The traditional tomb of St. Anne and St. Joachim was rediscovered in Jerusalem in 1889. Saint Joachim, Father of the Blessed Virgin. Scriptural Saint. Celebration of Feast Day is July 26.

Taken from "Lives of Saints", Published by John J. Crawley & Co., Inc. Provided Courtesy of: Legends of St. Anne, Mother of the Virgin Mary: Introduction | Robbins Library Digital Projects Search Search this site: Legends of St. Anne, Mother of the Virgin Mary: Introduction LEGENDS OF ST. ANNE, MOTHER OF THE VIRGIN MARY, INTRODUCTION: FOOTNOTES 1 Numerous illustrations of these medieval images can be found in Interpreting Cultural Symbols, ed. Ashley and Sheingorn. On the theological and social implications of the medieval images of the Holy Kinship and their less matrilineal replacements during the Reformation, see especially Sheingorn's essay in this collection, "Appropriating the Holy Kinship." 2 Gail McMurray Gibson writes eloquently about this aspect of the legend in "The Religion of Childbed," pp. 104-07. from: Middle English Legends of Women Saints 2003 Although the canonical books of the New Testament never mention the parents 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 account of this kind is the apocryphal gospel called the Protevangelium of James, first written in Greek around the middle of the second century. The high status of the Protevangelium in the Eastern Church is attested by the survival of numerous manuscripts not only in Greek but also in Coptic (Sahidic), Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Ethiopic, Old Church Slavonic, and Arabic translations. In the West, on the other hand, the Protevangelium fell under a cloud in the fourth and fifth centuries when it was accused of "absurdities" by St. Jerome and condemned as untrustworthy by Popes Damasus, Innocent I, and Gelasius. Jerome's most explicit complaint was that it explained the brothers of Jesus, mentioned most prominently in Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55-56, as Joseph's sons by an earlier marriage. In the interpretation preferred by Jerome and the Western Church, the so-called brothers are interpreted as cousins of Jesus, sons of Mary's sisters, thus allowing both Joseph and Mary to be envisioned as lifelong virgins.

The dubious reputation of the Protevangelium in the wake of these condemnations evidently delayed the development of Anne's legend and cult in the West by several centuries. But the stigma was not passed on to the Latin retellings and elaborations of the same narrative that began to circulate under different titles in the early Middle Ages; ironically enough, some of them even buttressed their credentials with prefatory letters supposedly written by Jerome. The most popular of these accounts was the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (sometimes called the History of the Birth of Mary and the Infancy of the Savior), which survives in several distinct recensions and at least 130 manuscripts, the earliest of which date to c. 800. The various recensions of Pseudo-Matthew gave rise in their turn to dozens of later works, in both Latin and the vernacular, that retold the story of Mary's birth and early life, adapting it to new audiences and purposes. Anne was initially just a minor character in the legend derived from the Protevangelium. But her role was capable of great significance because of what it could imply about the Virgin Mary and about the workings of God in this world.

Christians were obviously curious from the start about when and why God had selected Mary for her unique position as the mother of the Redeemer. The legend attempts to answer such questions by borrowing from Biblical stories about other long-awaited children, including Isaac (Genesis 15-18, 21:1-8), Samson (Judges 13), John the Baptist (Luke 1: 5-25, 57-80), and especially Samuel (1 Samuel 1-2); thus Mary becomes both a child of destiny, heralded before birth as a chosen instrument in the redemption of God's people, and a sign of God's favor toward her parents, a virtuous couple who had long been barren. With the growth of Mary's cult in the twelfth century, a harder and more controversial question began to be raised about her conception and birth. Was she subject to sin like other human beings, making her redemption dependent on Christ's sacrifice, or had she been "immaculate" (unspotted, free from original sin) from the start?

The Council of Basel endorsed the latter position in 1438, and Pope Pius IX approved it definitively as a doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church in 1854. During the late Middle Ages, however, belief in Mary's immaculate conception was strongly opposed by many theologians, including most Dominicans. Since sexual intercourse was understood as the means by which original sin was transmitted from one generation to another, the legend about the separation of Mary's parents during the year before she was born took on new importance in the context of this dispute. Some versions of the legend support the "immaculist" position, suggesting that Mary was miraculously conceived at the moment when the angel appeared to her mother or (more often) when her parents were reunited at the Golden Gate in Jerusalem and chastely embraced. In versions preferred by the Dominicans and other maculists, on the other hand, there is no suggestion that she was conceived in anything other than the normal biological fashion, after her parents' reunion. Anne also played a useful role for medieval commentators on the Bible when they attempted to explain the extended family of Jesus.

As mentioned earlier, Jerome had argued successfully that the "brothers" mentioned in the Gospels were Jesus's cousins, sons of Mary's sisters. Biblical commentators in the early medieval West went on to identify those sisters with two other Maries mentioned in the Gospels (John 19:25 and Mark 16:1), to take Anne as the mother of all three, and to explain the names of her second and third daughters by creating the theory of the trinubium, or three marriages of Anne. According to the trinubium, Joachim must have died soon after the birth of the Virgin Mary, so that Anne could marry a second husband named Cleophas, by whom she bore Mary Cleophas, and (after Cleophas's death) a third husband named Salome, by whom she bore Mary Salome. From these three daughters, the theory continued, came Jesus and all six "brothers" or cousins named in the Gospels.

James the lesser or younger, Joseph or Joses, Simon, and Jude were explained as the sons of Mary Cleophas, who had married Alpheus; James the Greater and John the Evangelist, as the sons of Mary Salome, who had married Zebedee. Thus Anne became the grandmother of some of the most prominent apostles, as well as Jesus himself. The trinubium theory was condemned in the twelfth century and later by a number of theologians, who felt that multiple marriages and additional children were incompatible with the purity and holiness that must have characterized the Virgin's mother, and some Biblical scholars rejected it on the grounds that it depended on misinterpretations of particular names and details. But the theory had a certain amount of internal logic on its side, given the way the legend equated fertility with blessedness and connected Anne with Hannah, the mother of Samuel, who was granted three more sons and two daughters after she dedicated her firstborn to God's service. The idea of the holy family as a large and powerful kinship had another advantage in medieval culture, of course, because it conformed so well with that culture's assumptions about family and class.

The theory was incorporated into later recensions of Pseudo-Matthew and repeated in the Legenda aurea, and by those means became generally known and widely accepted in the later Middle Ages as part of Anne's life story. Like her legend, the cult of St. Anne was so closely connected with that of the Virgin Mary, especially at the beginning, that it is not easy to tell where the one leaves off and the other begins. In the Eastern church the cult of Anne herself may go back as far as c. 550, when Justinian built a church in Constantinople in her honor. The earliest sign of her veneration in the West is an eighth-century fresco in the church of Santa Maria Antiqua, Rome, which shows her with a halo, holding the infant Mary. But not until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is there unmistakable evidence that the Western church was honoring St. Anne in her own right, rather than just an adjunct to Mary. During those 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.

By 1300 at least five important English monastic foundations were also claiming to have relics of Anne, and dozens of additional shrines, altars, and chapels had been dedicated to her, both in England and on the Continent. Liturgical commemorations of Anne in the West seem to have followed a similar course of development, except that monastic houses in England played a more central role. The story of Joachim and Anne received at least passing mention in the liturgy for one of the oldest annual feasts of Mary, the Nativity of the Virgin (September 8 in Western calendars), which was included in the Sacramentary of Gelasius (c. 700) and firmly established in Anglo-Saxon England by the ninth or tenth century. Anne's role tended to take on more importance when an annual feast was added to celebrate the Conception of the Virgin (observed exactly nine months earlier - i.e., December 8).

There is good evidence that the Conception was being commemorated at Winchester, Exeter, and Canterbury before the Norman Conquest, and this feast day was revived in the twelfth century through the efforts of Benedictine writers like Eadmer of Canterbury and Anselm of Bury, although it became generally established in England only after 1328 (when it was made obligatory for the whole Province of Canterbury) and was not clearly mandated for the Church as a whole until 1476 (when Pope Sixtus IV confirmed the Council of Basel's ruling on the matter). England also preceded most of the Continent in instituting a separate feast day for Anne herself (July 26). The date traditionally associated with the adoption of this feast is 1382, the year in which Pope Urban VI authorized its celebration throughout England, but it was already being celebrated in the twelfth century in some of the great English monastic churches, most notably those at Worcester and Evesham. The great flowering of Anne's cult among the laity occurred between about 1300 and the Council of Trent in the mid sixteenth century.

By 1540 there were at least 40 medieval churches and chapels under her patronage in England, the majority of which had been dedicated or rededicated to her during the previous two centuries. She also had major shrines at Buxton (Derbyshire) and Wood-Plumpton (Lancashire), and was frequently chosen by prosperous laymen and women as patron saint of their guilds and recipient of special bequests and offerings. As Gail Gibson has shown, such devotion to her seems to have been unusually strong in East Anglia. Many churches had cycles of paintings or tapestries illustrating key scenes from her legend, or portraits of the Holy Kinship that showed Anne surrounded by her daughters and grandsons. Another popular late-medieval image of Anne was the grouping known in German as the Anna Selbdritt ("herself making a third") - a maternal version of the Trinity, in effect, often with Anne seated in a position recalling God the Father on His throne, with the young Virgin Mary on her knee, holding the infant Jesus. 1 Anne appealed in a number of different ways to various groups and classes within the late-medieval church.

As has already been suggested, some theologians found material in her legend to support their arguments about the Immaculate Conception and other issues related to the Incarnation of Christ. Some religious orders, most notably the Carmelites, claimed a special relationship with her and other members of the holy family, which they used to lend prestige to their own institutional history. To many members of the laity, on the other hand, Anne obviously represented an attractive alternative to the standard equation of female saintliness with virginity, persecution, and early death. Envisioned as a holy mother and grandmother, contentedly presiding over a family of well-brought-up daughters and grandsons, she naturally became a patron saint of marriage and the family. A wife whose virtue was ultimately rewarded with fertility, she seemed an appropriate guardian against both lechery and barrenness. In addition, as Ton Brandenbarg has noted, the prominence of genealogies in her legend led to her association with "dynastic sanctity," an ideal with great attractiveness both to aristocrats and to members of the middle class with ambitions for their families.

She was also associated with other bourgeois values, including prosperity, diligence, generosity to the poor, married chastity, and harmonious family life, and (since she was often portrayed with a book, teaching the young Virgin Mary to read) with education, especially for women. But her potential appeal extended even to illiterate peasants, especially insofar as she recalled the figure of the powerful grandmother in folklore, and indeed to anyone who simply needed an intercessor with Jesus and believed in the power of family connections. The Middle English versions of her legend edited here suggest that the cult of Anne developed quite unevenly in different regions or segments of society in England. The two chapters by Mirk remind us how recently she had been added to the calendar in many English churches - and that the impetus for her cult sometimes came from above, not from the grass roots. Mirk's sermon on the Conception is really about Mary, as the final miracle stories show, and Anne receives less attention than Joachim does in the narrative leading up to Mary's birth. Even in his sermon for St. Anne's feast day, Mirk does not present Anne as a saint with her own cult and identity.

The opening section, in which he distinguishes Anne from several women in the Bible with similar names, suggests that he didn't expect his audience to have much prior knowledge of her. When he gives a family lineage, it is the lineage of Anne's husband Joachim, rather than that of Anne herself. And although he repeats the legend of her later marriages, the sermon does not actually focus attention on Anne herself except at the end, and even there the account of her holy lineage in lines 65-71 is taken to prove her potential usefulness as a derivative or subordinate saint, a means of access to Mary, her daughter. The fifteenth-century verse retelling of Anne's life by Osbern Bokenham (1393-1464?), in contrast, shows much more interest in Anne's own character and virtues, and in her human experience. Bokenham, an Austin (Augustinian) friar at Clare Priory in East Anglia, dedicated most of his accounts of female saints to laywomen from prominent families in the vicinity. In the case of St.

Anne, he wrote for Katherine Clopton Denston, daughter and sister of wealthy cloth merchants whose family portraits survive in the parish church of nearby Long Melford, where they were major donors. Katherine and her husband John Denston, a local landowner and civil servant, had just one child, a daughter named after St. Anne, and Bokenham spells out one purpose of his account in the closing lines, when he invokes the saint's help in fulfilling their desire for a second child, a son. 2 But it is clearly not just St. Anne's role as an intercessor that makes her life relevant, in Bokenham's view, to women like his friend Katherine Denston. His account goes well beyond its sources in its sympathetic attention to the marriage between Anne and Joachim - adding passages, for instance, which emphasize how well matched they are in age, rank, and virtue (lines 229-50), how dearly Anne loves her husband (336-49), and how joyful she is when he returns from his long absence (567-73). Thus Bokenham reassuringly suggests through St.

Anne that laypeople can have a good and loving marriage without forfeiting the possibility of holiness. [Mirk]London, British Library MS Cotton Claudius A.ii, fols. 11v-13r, 95v-96v. [Bokenham]London, British Library MS Arundel 327, fols. 27r-39r. Previous editions Mirk, John. Mirk's Festial. Ed. Theodor Erbe. EETS, e.s. 96 (1905). Pp. 15-18, 213-16. Bokenham Horstmann, Carl, ed. Osbern Bokenham's Legenden. In Altenglische Bibliothek, vol. 1. Ed. Eugen Kölbing. Heilbronn: Henninger, 1883. Bokenham, Osbern. Legendys of Hooly Wummen. Ed. Mary S. Serjeantson. EETS o.s. 206. 1938. Pp. 38-58. Translations into modern English Delany, Sheila, trans. and intro.

A Legend of Holy Women. 1992. Pp. 29-41. [For full reference, see Bokenham in General Bibliography, p. 15.] Important sources and analogues in English Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. Chs. 1-5. In The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325. Ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Rev. and arranged A. Cleveland Coxe. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1867-72. Rpt. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1989. Vol. 8. Pp. 368-71. Jacobus de Voragine. The Golden Legend. Trans. William Granger Ryan. Ch. 131, "The Birth of the Virgin." 1993. Vol. 2. Pp. 149-58. Meredith, Peter, ed. The Mary Play from the N. town Manuscript. London and New York: Longman, 1987. Pp.

30-48. Parker, Roscoe E., ed. Middle English Stanzaic Versions of the Life of Saint Anne. EETS o.s. 174. London: Oxford University Press, 1928. Protevangelium of James. Chs. 1-7. In The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation. Ed. J. K. Elliott. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993. Pp. 48-60. Historical background and commentary Ashley, Kathleen, and Pamela Sheingorn. "Introduction." In Ashley and Sheingorn, Inter-preting Cultural Symbols. Pp. 1-68. Bishop, Edmund. "On the Origins of the Feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary." In Liturgica Historica: Papers on the Liturgy and Religious Life of the Western Church. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1918. Pp. 238-49. [Originally published in The Downside Review, April 1886.] Brandenbarg, Ton.

"Saint Anne: A Holy Grandmother and Her Children." In Mulder-Bakker, Sanctity and Motherhood. Pp. 31-65. Charland, Paul V. Madame saincte Anne et son culte au moyen âge. 2 vols. Paris: Alphonse Picard, 1911-1913. Gibson, Gail McMurray. "The Religion of Childbed: Some East Anglian Texts and Talismans." In Ashley and Sheingorn. Pp. 95-110. Sheingorn, Pamela. "Appropriating the Holy Kinship: Gender and Family History." In Ashley and Sheingorn. Pp. 169-98. Footnotes LEGENDS OF ST. ANNE, MOTHER OF THE VIRGIN MARY, INTRODUCTION: FOOTNOTES 1 Numerous illustrations of these medieval images can be found in Interpreting Cultural Symbols, ed. Ashley and Sheingorn.

On the theological and social implications of the medieval images of the Holy Kinship and their less matrilineal replacements during the Reformation, see especially Sheingorn's essay in this collection, "Appropriating the Holy Kinship." 2 Gail McMurray Gibson writes eloquently about this aspect of the legend in "The Religion of Childbed," pp. 104-07. share this page Who is Saint Joachim? - Welcome to Saint Joachim Parish! Saint Joachim Roman Catholic Parish Welcome to Saint Joachim Parish! St. Joachim, Father of the Most Blessed Virgin Feast: July 26th St. Joachim was the ever-chaste husband of St. Anne, the mother of our Blessed Virgin. Though advanced in years, Sts. Joachim and Anne remained fervent in their prayers to be blessed with a child. God was pleased with their devotion and chose to bless them with a miraculous conception, long past child-bearing years, as a result of their love of Him and love of each other. Tradition teaches that while Joachim was away from home, an angel of God appeared to him in a vision.

This angel promised that he and Saint Anne would bear a child who would be blessed through the ages. Upon waking from this vision, St. Joachim rushed home to share his excitement with his beloved wife. She was there to greet him, only to reveal the same good tidings as she was promised in another visitation from God's messenger. What indescribably sweet happiness must have existed in their hearts to know God was granting them such a blessing! In gratitude and devotion to their Lord, St. Joachim delivered Mary to the service of the Temple when she was just three years old. As a result of his exemplary love, devotion and obedience to the Will of the Father, St. Joachim was named Patron of fathers, grandfathers, grandparents, married couples, cabinet makers and linen traders. He is shown in art forms as an older man, often in the company of his beloved wife, St. Anne, and sometimes with the Blessed Mother and Jesus. Images of Saint Joachim are often identified by the presence of his associated symbols. A book or scroll represents linen makers, a shepherd's staff for the Christian word, and a basket of doves represents peace. He is almost always dressed in green, the color of hope.

Prayer to Saint Joachim O great and glorious Patriarch, Saint Joachim, what joy is mine when I consider that thou wast chosen among all God's holy ones to assist in the fulfillment of the mysteries of God, and to enrich our earth with the great Mother of God, Mary most holy! By this singular privilege, thou hast become most powerful with both the Mother and her Son, so as to be able to obtain for us the graces that are needful to us; with great confidence I have recourse to thy mighty protection and I commend to thee all my needs and those of my family, both spiritual and temporal; and especially do I entrust to thy keeping the particular favor that I desire and look for from thy fatherly intercession. And since thou wast a perfect pattern of the interior life, obtain for me the grace of interior recollection and a spirit of detachment from the transitory goods of this life, together with a lively and enduring love for Jesus and Mary.

Obtain for me in like manner a sincere devotion and obedience to Holy Church and the sovereign pontiff who rules over her: to the end that I may live and die in faith and hope and perfect charity, ever invoking the holy names of Jesus and Mary, and may I thus be saved. Amen. Saint Joachim ben Matthan (c.-41 - c.-10) - Genealogy Saint Joachim ben Matthan Hebrew: Saint יְהוֹיָקִים ben Matthan, Greek: Saint Joachim Ἰωακείμ Also Known As: "Joachin", "Joachim", "Joakhim", "Yoachim", "Yoyakim", "Heli (Prince Alexander III “Helios”) ben Matthan" Birthdate: stepmother About Saint Joachim Joachim and Anna, the parents of St. Mary, are not named in canonical writings. All information about them comes from apocryphal literature, the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary and the Gospel of James.

In the Gospel of James (about 145), Joachim is said to have been a rich and pious man, a descendant of King David, of the House of Amram. He and his wife Anna lived at Sepphoris. They were old and childless when they were miraculously blessed with a child who became the Virgin Mary. They then moved from Galilee to Jerusalem. In the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary (part of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, 620-625), Joachim is said to have been a shepherd, of the tribe of Judah, married to Anna, daughter of Achar, of the tribe of Judah and family of David. The genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke (about 110) ends with Heli, the father of Joseph, the father "as was supposed" of Jesus (Luke 3:23-31). A 16th century tradition says Luke's genealogy was that of Mary, while Matthew's was that of Joseph. Therefore the Heli of the genealogy would have been Mary's father Joachim (equating Heli to Eliakim to Joachim).

Some contemporary scholars suggest Luke's genealogy is fraudulent, invented by an author who was not aware of the genealogy given by Matthew. Later traditions make Jesus' grandfather Heli a first cousin of Mary's father Joachim. John of Damascus, in the first half of the 8th century, said Joachim was the son of Bar-Panther, the son of Levi (De fid. Orth., 4.14). The Bollandists, editors of the Acta Santorum (1643) identified Joachim as a son of Heli, and brother of Saint Joseph. The Feast Day of SS. Joachim and Anna is July 26. -- Contributed by Justin Swanström Anna's Marriages Ancient belief, attested to by a sermon of St. John of Damascus (c. 676-749, was that Anne married once. However, according to a medieval tradition, Anne was also grandmother to five of the twelve apostles: John the Evangelist, James the Greater, James the Less, Simon and Jude.

She is said to have married three times, first to Joachim, then to Cleopas, and finally to a man named Solomas, and that each marriage produced one daughter: Mary, mother of Jesus; Mary of Cleopas; and Mary Salomae, respectively. This legend, called the trinubium, has been traced to Haymo, Bishop of Halberstadt (d. 853) in his Historiae Sacrae Epitome. Anna solet dici tres concepisse Marias, Quas genuere viri Joachim, Cleophas, Salomeque. Has duxere viri Joseph, Alpheus, Zebedeus. Prima parit Christum, Jacobum secunda minorem, Et Joseph justum peperit cum Simone Judam, Tertia majorem Jacobum volucremque Johannem. Jacobus de Voragine, 2.131. (Anna is usually said to have conceived three Marys, Whom her husbands Joachim, Cleophas, and Salome begot. These [Marys] the men Joseph, Alpheus, and Zebedee took in marriage.

The first bore Christ; the second bore James the Less, Joseph the Just, with Simon [and] Jude; The third, James the Greater and the winged John.) However, the tradition is not reliable: "The renowned Father John of Eck of Ingolstadt, in a sermon on St. Anne (published at Paris in 1579), pretends to know even the names of the parents St. Anne. He calls them Stollanus and Emerentia. He says that St. Anne was born after Stollanus and Emerentia had been childless for twenty years; that St. Joachim died soon after the presentation of Mary in the temple; that St. Anne then married Cleophas, by whom she became the mother of Mary Cleophae (the wife of Alphaeus and mother of the Apostles James the Lesser, Simon and Judas, and of Joseph the Just); after the death of Cleophas she is said to have married Salomas, to whom she bore Maria Salomae (the wife of Zebedaeus and mother of the Apostles John and James the Greater). The same spurious legend is found in the writings of Gerson (Opp.

III, 59) and of many others. There arose in the sixteenth century an animated controversy over the marriages of St. Anne, in which Baronius and Bellarmine defended her monogamy." Catholic Encyclopedia. Sources " St. Anne " In Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) Wikipedia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For other persons named Joachim, see Joachim (disambiguation).

Saint Joachim Saints Joachim and Anne, parents of the Virgin Mary Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Confessor Born 1st century BC Died unknown, Sepphoris or Jerusalem Venerated in Roman Catholic Church Orthodox Churches Islam Canonized Pre-Congregation Feast July 26; March 20 (General Roman Calendar, 1584-1738); Sunday after the Octave of the Assumption (General Roman Calendar, 1738-1913); August 16 (General Roman Calendar, 1913-1969) Attributes Lamb, doves, with Saint Anne or Mary Patronage Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, fathers, grandparents, Fasnia (Tenerife) Saint Joachim ("he whom YHWH has set up", Hebrew: יְהוֹיָקִים Yəhôyāqîm, Greek Ἰωακείμ Iōākeím) was the husband of Saint Anne and the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and therefore is ascribed the title of "forebearer of God", in the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican traditions.

The story of SS. Joachim and Anne appears in the apocryphal Gospel of James. The canonical Gospel accounts in the New Testament do not explicitly name either of Mary's parents, but some argue that the genealogy in Luke 3 is that of Mary rather than Joseph, thereby naming her father as Eli (Heli).[1] Later traditions, however, specify that this Eli was a first cousin of Mary's father Joachim.[2] Forrás / Source: CatholicSaints.Info » Blog Archive » Saint Joachim Saint Joachim 26 July Profile Husband of Saint Anne , elderly father of the Blessed Virgin Mary . Grandfather of Jesus Christ. Probably well off. Tradition says that while he was away from home, he and Anne each received a message from an angel that she was pregnant . Believed to have given Mary to the service of the Temple when the girl was three years old. Joachim is mentioned in neither historical nor canonical writings . The information we have on Joachim derives mainly from the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James .

Born man bringing a lamb to the altar and being turned away by the priest greeting and/or kissing Saint Anne at the Golden Gate elderly man with the child Mary Storefront YouTube PlayList Readings Joachim and Anne , how blessed a couple! All creation is indebted to you. For at your hands the Creator was offered a gift excelling all other gifts: a chaste mother , who alone was worthy of him. Joachim and Anne , how blessed and spotless a couple! You will be known by the fruit you have borne, as the Lord says: “By their fruits you will know them.” The conduct of your life pleased God and was worthy of your daughter. For by the chaste and holy life you led together, you have fashioned a jewel of virginity: she who remained a virgin before, during, and after giving birth. She along for all time would maintain her virginity in mind and soul as well as in body. Joachim and Anne , how chaste a couple! While leading a devout and holy life in your human nature, you gave birth to a daughter nobler than the angels , whose queen she now is. – from a sermon by Bishop Saint John Damascene MLA Citation “Saint Joachim“.

CatholicSaints.Info. 31 October 2016. Web. 18 January 2017. < > CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. Joachim Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > J > St. Joachim St. Joachim Help support New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download . Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99... Joachim (whose name means Yahweh prepares), was the father of the Blessed Virgin Mary . If we were to obey the warning of St. Peter Damian , we should consider it a blameable and needless curiosity to inquire about those things that the Evangelists did not deem it advisable to relate, and, in particular, about the parents of the Blessed Virgin (Serm. iii de Nativ. B.M.V.). Tradition nevertheless, grounded on very old testimonies, very early hailed Saints Joachim and Anne as the father and mother of the Mother of God .

True, this tradition seems to rest ultimately on the so-called "Gospel of James", the "Gospel of the Nativity of the Blessed Mary", and the Pseudo-Matthew, or "Book of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the Childhood of the Saviour"; and this origin is likely to rouse well-founded suspicions. It should be borne in mind, however, that the apocryphal character of these writings, that is to say, their rejection from the canon, and their ungenuineness do not imply that no heed whatever should be taken of some of their assertions; side by side, indeed, with unwarranted and legendary facts, they contain some historical data borrowed from reliable traditions or documents; and difficult though it is to distinguish in them the wheat from the tares, it would be unwise and uncritical indiscriminately to reject the whole. Some commentators, who believe that the genealogy given by St. Luke is that of the Blessed Virgin, find the mention of Joachim in Heli ( Luke 3:23 ; Eliachim, i.e.

Jeho-achim), and explain that Joseph had, in the eyes of the law , become by his marriage the son of Joachim. That such is the purpose and the meaning of the Evangelist is very doubtful , and so is the identification proposed between the two names Heli and Joachim. Neither can it be asserted with certainty , in spite of the authority of the Bollandists , that Joachim was Heli's son and Joseph's brother; nor, as is sometimes affirmed, from sources of very doubtful value, that he had large possessions in herds and flocks. Much more interesting are the beautiful lines in which the "Gospel of James" describes how, in their old age, Joachim and Anne received the reward of their prayers to obtain issue. Tradition has it that the parents of the Blessed Virgin , who, apparently, first lived in Galilee , came later on to settle in Jerusalem ; there the Blessed Virgin was born and reared; there also they died and were buried. A church, known at various epochs as St. Mary, St. Mary ubi nata est, St. Mary in Probatica, Holy Probatica, St.

Anne, was built during the fourth century, possibly by St. Helena , on the site of the house of St. Joachim and St. Anne, and their tombs were there honoured until the close of the ninth century, when the church was converted into a Moslem school . The crypt which formerly contained the holy tombs was rediscovered on 18 March, 1889. St. Joachim was honoured very early by the Greeks, who celebrate his feast on the day following the Blessed Virgin's birthday; the Latins were slow to admit it to their calendar, where it found place sometimes on 16 Sept. and sometimes on 9 Dec. Assigned by Julius II to 20 March, the solemnity was suppressed some fifty years later, restored by Gregory XV (1622), fixed by Clement XII (1738) on the Sunday after the Assumption, and finally raised to the rank of double of the second class by Leo XIII (1 Aug., 1879).

Saint Anne Saint Anne The Mother of the Blessed Virgin Feast: July 26 Anne (Hebrew, Hannah, grace; also spelled Ann, Anne, Anna) is the wife of Joachim and the mother of Mary. She is the grandmother according to the flesh of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Her name means "grace" or "the gracious one" or "the loving one." Of St. Anne we have no certain knowledge. She is not mentioned in the New Testament, and we must depend on apocryphal literature, chiefly the Protoevangelium of James, which dates back only to the second century. In this document we are told that Anne, wife of Joachim, was advanced in years and that her prayers for a child had not been answered.

Once as she prayed beneath a laurel tree near her home in Galilee, an angel appeared and said to her, "Anne, the Lord hath heard thy prayer and thou shalt conceive and bring forth, and thy seed shall be spoken of in all the world." Anne replied, "As the Lord my God liveth, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and it shall minister to Him in holy things all the days of its life " And thus Anne became the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary. With the birth of Mary the holy matron began a new life; she watched Her every movement with reverent tenderness, and, aware of the little one’s destiny, felt herself hourly sanctified by the presence of her Immaculate Child. But she had vowed her daughter to God; to God the child Mary had already consecrated Herself, and to Him Anne gave Her back. Mary was three years old when Anne and Joachim led Her to the Temple steps, saw Her pass by Herself into the inner sanctuary, and then saw Her no more. Thus was Anne left childless in her old age, and deprived of her purest earthly joy.

The holiest parents on earth could not, in the plan of God, raise this Child as was needed: Mary had to suffer from Her earliest years. Saint Anne and Saint Joachim humbly adored the Divine Will, and continued to watch and pray, until God called them to unending rest. “Good Saint Anne” is the loving way that many Catholics address the mother of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. Fifty years after Saint Anne’s death, her body was brought to France by Saint Mary Magdalene and her companions in the year 47. Countless churches have been dedicated to Saint Anne all over the world. Canada in particular is devoted to her, and has a beautiful shrine named for her there, called “Saint Anne de Beaupre`” to which people come from everywhere. Simplicity is the secret by which we gain Saint Anne's love, her intercession, and her protection. She taught her Blessed Daughter to read the Holy Scripture, seeing in Her the fulfillment of all its prophesies.

Sensing her daughter’s immaculate and incomparable holiness, beauty, and brilliance, Saint Anne, and her husband and Mary’s father, Saint Joachim, presented Mary in the Temple when she was just three years old, and gave to God and to us forever. Her feast day and that of Saint Joachim occurs on July 26th. Glorious St. Anne, filled with compassion for those who invoke you, with love for those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of my troubles, I kneel at your feet and humbly beg you to take my present need under your special protection . . . (mention here). Vouchsafe to recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and lay it before the throne of Jesus. Cease not to intercede for me until my request is granted. Above all, obtain for me the grace to one day meet God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the angels and saints praising Him through all eternity. Amen Saint Joachim, Father of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary Father of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary ( ca. 7 B.C.) Saint Joachim O.D.M.

pinxit Joachim, of the tribe of Juda and the family of David, was a shepherd of Nazareth. Stolanus, father of Saint Anne, gave him his pious daughter in marriage. The two spouses lived in the fear of the Lord and the practice of good works. They divided all their wealth into three parts: the first was regularly given to the temple, for its support and that of the ministers of religion; they gave the second part to the poor, while the last and least excellent served for the needs of the family. Nonetheless, happiness had not come to this home  the spouse of Joachim was sterile. For twenty years already they had prayed to God to deliver them from this opprobrium. The holy couple invariably went, according to custom at the Feast of Tabernacles, to the Holy City. There the high priest was immolating the victims when Joachim presented himself in his turn, bearing a lamb; Anne followed him. The high priest had only words of contempt and reproach for them, and in the presence of the people he rejected their offering. Joachim did not have the heart to return to Nazareth; his grief prompted him to seek solitude and prayer.

Anne returned alone to their residence, and he retired to a region near Jerusalem, where shepherds were pasturing their sheep. The silent calm of pastoral life, brought some relief to the wound of his heart. Who has not known how solitude brings one closer to God? One day when he was alone in the fields, the Angel Gabriel came and stood before him. Joachim prostrated himself, trembling with fear. Do not fear, said the heavenly messenger. I am the Angel of the Lord, and it is God Himself who sends me. He has heard your prayers; your alms have come before His presence. Anne, your spouse, will bear a daughter whose happiness will be above that of other women; She will be blessed, and named the Mother of eternal blessing. You will name the Child Mary and consecrate Her to God when the time comes. The Holy Spirit, from the time She is in the womb of Her mother, will dwell in Her soul, and He will accomplish in Her great things. With those words, the Angel disappeared. The Archangel's announcement and the Lord's promise were fulfilled. Joachim in his turn was faithful to the commands of the Lord.

His daughter received the name of Mary, and when She was three years old, he and Saint Anne entrusted Her to the pious women who in the temple of Jerusalem brought up young girls consecrated to the Lord. Mary had lived there under the gaze of God for eight years, when Joachim died, laden with merits and virtues. Anne, his spouse, had him buried in the Valley of Josaphat, not far from the Garden of Gethsemane, and one year later rejoined him there. La vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, by Abbé Pradier; Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 9 Spiritual Bouquet: In the world you will have affliction; but take courage, I have overcome the world. St. John 16:33 Who is Saint Anne? | Saint Anne's Parish Who is Saint Anne? Home → About →Who is Saint Anne? Who is Saint Anne?

Saint Anne, Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary Feast Day: July 26th What little we know about Saint Anne comes from the apocryphal Gospel of James (ca. 145 AD), also known as the Protoevangelium of James [PJ]. According to tradition, Anne (Hannah in Hebrew) was born in Bethlehem and married Joachim of Nazareth, both descendants of King David. Joachim is described as “a rich and devout man,” who regularly gave to the poor and “made a double offering to the temple” in expiation for his sins (PJ 1:1). Because Anne was barren, the temple priest rejected Joachim’s sacrifice, as childlessness was interpreted as a sign of divine displeasure. There was no greater misfortune for a Jewish person than to be childless. Had not God promised to His people, through Abraham, “descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore” (Gen. 22:17)? Joachim consequently “went into the desert to fast and pray” for forty days and forty nights (PJ 1:4).

But Anne remembered the faith of her ancestors, and with renewed courage prayed: “God of my fathers, bless me: Hear my prayer, as You blessed the womb of Sarah, and gave her a son Isaac!” (PJ 2:4). Her prayer was heard: “Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to her and said: ‘Anne, Anne, the Lord has heard your prayer: You shall conceive and bear, and your offspring shall be spoken of in all the world’ ” (PJ 4:1). In an outpouring of faith, she who was to be Mary’s mother immediately consecrated her future offspring. An angel appeared also to Joachim, saying: “Joachim, Joachim, God has heard your prayer. Go on your way, for your wife will conceive” (PJ 4:2). And Joachim offered a thanksgiving sacrifice of ten she-lambs without spot or blemish for the Lord God, twelve tender calves for the priests and elders, and a hundred goats for all the people. He then returned to Jerusalem and embraced Anne at the city gate (PJ 4:3-4).

There was an ancient belief 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 Old Testament in the cases of Sarah, mother of Isaac and Hannah, mother of Samuel; and in the New Testament in the case of Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist. Tradition further narrates that in gratitude to God for the blessing of a daughter, Joachim and Anne vowed to consecrate Mary to God in the Temple as soon as her age permitted it. And they did. Mary was scarcely three years old when, accompanied by her parents, she first set foot in the Temple. Here the noble child was admitted to the elect group of virgins consecrated to God (PJ 7). It is commonly believed that the Blessed Virgin lost her beloved parents when she was about eleven. Just when she was living a life of angelic happiness in the house of the Lord, Mary had to taste of that chalice which fills the hearts of children with the most human sadness. The precise time of Joachim’s and Anne’s blessed passing is unknown, but the Fathers of the Church affirm that Mary became an orphan when still in the Temple.

Yet her faith and hope made her see in the death of her parents the passage from exile to homeland, from earth to heaven. The time of Mary’s presentation in the Temple is unknown. The Church celebrates the feast of the Presentation of Our Lady on November 21st. Anne, blessed above all others, we, too, bring our reverence, for you have given birth to the girl from whom He will come Who is the basis of all our hope. Blessed, indeed, above all others, and blessed in your offspring! The tongues of all believers sing the praises of your child. Every voice is raised in joy at her birth. How worthy Anne is of praise, most worthy, for she received the message of God’s goodness, and brought forth such fruit that from it would come our Lord, Jesus. — St John of Damascus (8th cent.) Devotion to Saint Anne By Father Pierre E. Lachance, O.P. Preached at Dominican Academy, 26 July 1992 The cult* of St Anne goes back to the early centuries of Christianity and appears to be intimately connected with the cult of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her daughter.

Many feasts of Mary were also inseparably feasts in honor of St Anne, her mother. Such were the feasts of Mary’s conception and of her birth. The Immaculate Conception of Mary happened in the womb of Anne. The cult of St Anne was general in the East before it spread to the Western Church. We know that a church was dedicated to St Anne in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, around the year 550. Another existed in Jerusalem at the same time and is especially venerable because it was built over the crypt that was the house of Joachim and Anne, the house where Mary was born. Since the official veneration of a saint regularly follows in the wake of a widespread private devotion, there can be no doubt that private devotion to St Anne began very early in the Eastern Church. By the 10th century, the Eastern Church observed three feasts in honor of St Anne: July 25, her special feast day; September 9, the day after Mary’s birthday; and December 9, right after the celebration of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The public cult of St Anne was probably introduced into the Western Church in the 8th century.

In 1378, the feast of St Anne was celebrated for the first time on July 26 in England, soon to be observed throughout the Western Church. Devotion to St Anne spread rapidly everywhere in the West. Confraternities were erected in her honor since the 13th century. Pilgrimages developed around the many churches or shrines dedicated to St Anne. The most famous are those of Duren in Germany, since 1501; Saint Anne d’Auray, in Brittany, France, since 1623; and Saint Anne de Beaupre in Canada, since 1670. The devotion to St Anne was brought to the United States and Canada by the first missionaries of North America, who came from France at a time when St Anne was becoming famous through her Shrine in Brittany. Today, St Anne has hundreds of churches and shrines dedicated to her in the United States and Canada, where she is still one of the most popular and beloved saints. Our own church of St Anne here was dedicated to St Anne by the founder of our parish in 1869.

Not surprisingly, because Fr Montaubricq, our first pastor, was a native of Bordeaux, France, and with a name like Montaubricq, it is clear that his ancestors came from Brittany, where the famous Shrine of Saint Anne d’Auray is located. Devotion to St Anne was natural to the Canadians who came to Fall River from Canada in the last century. They loved their shrine of St Anne de Beaupre, and the devotion to St Anne was widespread and traditional among the French Canadians. St Anne is the official patroness of the Province of Quebec. After Fr Montaubricq came Fr Thomas Briscoe, second pastor of St Anne’s. An Irishman himself, he encouraged the devotion of his parishioners to St Anne by conducting an annual novena in preparation for the feast of St Anne. Then came the French Dominicans in 1887. It was Fr Sauval who, in 1892, first organized pilgrimages to St Anne in his church. That was the old wooden church on Hunter Street. He invited the French pastors of the area to come with their parishioners on a pilgrimage to St Anne in Fall River.

Traveling to St Anne de Beaupre was a long trip and expensive for poor immigrants. Coming to pray to St Anne at the Fall River Shrine became very appealing – so much so, that in 1892 Fr Sauval announced from the pulpit one Sunday a grand vision of his: to build a new and larger church that would some day become a national shrine in the U.S. like that of St Anne de Beaupre in Canada. Two years later, construction began and on the 4th of July, 1906 our beautiful church was completed and dedicated. In those early times and for many years to come, pastors would come on an annual pilgrimage with groups of parishioners of 500, 1000, 1500 and more. They came by trolley car, by omnibus (i.e. horse-drawn busses) and even by boat from Providence and Pawtucket. On the boat, certain newspaper reports tell us that the people prayed, sang hymns and at times the priest accompanying them would preach a sermon. It was truly a spiritual event, not a pleasure excursion.

Is it any surprise that “Good Saint Anne” often rewarded the faith and the devotion of those pilgrims in marvelous ways? I have many hundreds of wonderful stories of healings and other favors obtained by those devotees of St Anne. Later on, in 1905, came Fr Marchildon, whom most of us have known very well. Through his long ministry, the devotion to the saint developed at St Anne Shrine and so did miracles and healings. The cult of St Anne and the supernatural blessings associated with it teaches us the importance of the saints in Christian life and the power of their intercession. The saints in heaven are part of our spiritual family. (Devotion to the saints is not as popular as it used to be. This is unfortunate.) In honoring them we give glory to God who honored them first. And as we become familiar with the saints, we are inspired to imitate their virtues and to draw closer to God. Amen. * By “cult” (from the Latin cultus) is meant the accumulation of prayers, hymns and other devotions extended to a particular saint, not the worship that is offered to the triune God alone.

Prayer to Saint Anne From the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum (1950), English ed. (Benziger Bros., 1957), no. 494. With my heart full of the most sincere veneration, I prostrate myself before thee, O glorious Saint Anne. Thou art that creature of privilege and predilection, who by thy extraordinary virtues and holiness didst merit from God the high favor of giving life to her who is the Treasury of all graces, blessed among women, the Mother of the Word Incarnate, the most holy Virgin Mary. By virtue of so lofty a privilege, do thou deign, O most compassionate Saint, to receive me into the number of thy true clients, for so I profess myself and so I desire to remain throughout my entire life. Shield me with thine effectual patronage and obtain for me from God the power to imitate those virtues wherewith thou was so plentifully adorned. Grant that I may know and weep over my sins in bitterness of heart. Obtain for me the grace of most active love for Jesus and Mary, and resolution to fulfill the duties of my state of life with faithfulness and constancy.

Save me from every danger that confronts me in life, and help me at the hour of death, that so I may come in safety to paradise, there to sing with thee, O most happy mother, the praises of the Word of God made Man in the womb of thy most pure daughter, the Virgin Mary. Amen. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, three times. January 2017 Why isn't Joachim mentioned in Jesus' genealogy? | The New Theological Movement Why isn't Joachim mentioned in Jesus' genealogy? July 26th, Feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary As we look at the two genealogies of Christ given in the Scriptures (Matthew 1:1ff and Luke 3:23), we might wonder why it is that St. Joachim is not mentioned as an ancestor of Jesus. It is no surprise that St. Anne would not be mentioned (since few women are), but we ought to be a bit alarmed at the lack of St. Joachim – since, he is the closest male blood-relative of our Savior.

Some – thinking themselves wise – may reply too quickly: “Well, of course Joachim isn’t mentioned! The genealogies are traced not through Mary, but through Joseph. Hence, since Joachim is Jesus’ ancestor through Mary, it is obvious that he wouldn’t be listed in the genealogy through Joseph!” Such persons are quite ignorant of the great diversity of Catholic opinion on this question. In fact, many of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church – as well as the best of the biblical scholars (we refer especially to Fr. Cornelius a’ Lapide) – have maintained that the genealogy given in Luke is the natural genealogy through Mary, while that in Matthew is the legal (and regal) genealogy through Joseph. “How can this be?,” some will cry, “The Bible clearly states that the genealogies are both through Joseph – first as ‘son of Jacob’ (in Matthew), then as ‘son of Heli’ (in Luke).” Pointing our readers to our previous article on Mary’s genealogy , we turn now to a careful study of where Joachim lies hidden in the text of St. Luke’s Gospel.

An apparent contradiction: Is Joseph the son of Jacob or of Heli? Matthew tells us that Jacob begot Joseph, but Luke states that Joseph was son of Heli – how are we to reconcile this apparent contradiction? There are many ways. Many of the Fathers maintained that Jacob and Heli were brothers and that, after Heli died childless (or, at least, without any sons), Jacob took Heli’s widow for his wife. Of her was born St. Joseph. Hence, according to the flesh, Joseph would be the son of Jacob only; but, according to legal right of inheritance, Joseph would be the son of Heli also. This explanation is certainly plausible, and enjoys the favor of many scholastic doctors as well (including St. Thomas Aquinas). There are, perhaps, other ways to explain this passage – nearly any interpretation will suffice, so long as we maintain the inerrancy of Sacred Scripture and avoid attributing a direct contradiction to the divinely-inspired word of God. Mary’s lineage as traced through Heli Many of the Fathers of the Church – followed also by the scholastic Doctors – have sought to present the genealogy given by Luke as the lineage not of Joseph, but of Mary.

Invoking the above interpretation (by which Heli was the brother of Jacob who was the natural father of Joseph), they join to it an additional intricacy: Heli is simply another name for Joachim. If Heli is Joachim, then we may presume that Joachim died without any sons. Joachim’s widow (presumably, a second wife other than St. Anne) would have married Jacob and bore him St. Joseph. Conversely (without adopting the theory of a blood relation between Heli and Jacob), we may follow the opinion of other scholars who maintained that Jacob (Joseph’s father) had died young and that Joseph became a quasi-adopted son of Heli/Joachim through his marriage to the Virgin – for this reason, then, Joseph is called son of Heli. Whatever the intricate details, the central claim of this theory is that Joachim was called Heli and that this “nick-name” would have been common knowledge to those for whom St. Luke was writing. This opinion is said to have been held by St. Jerome, and is defended with great vigor by Fr. Cornelius a’ Lapide.

It was a common opinion that enjoyed the favor of many scholars from at least the 1400s up through the early 1900s. Linguistic study: Heli and Joachim We argue that Heli and Joachim are linguistically related, such that it would be very natural for a single man to go by these two names. Joachim seems to be a variant form of Eliacim, which is abbreviated as Eli, a variant of Heli. Hence, though the two names may at first appear quite different, there is a great linguistic similarity between Heli and Joachim. In any case, there are many persons in the New Testament who are called by multiple names: Nathanael is called Bartholomew, Thomas is called Didymus, Cleophas is called both Clepas and Alphaeus (though this last is more debatable), Salome is called Mary (her full name being Mary Salome), et c. Mathan, the common grandfather of Joseph (son of Jacob) and the Virgin Mary (daughter of Joachim, called Heli) [from the great, Fr.

Cornelius a’ Lapide, commenting on Luke 3:23] As was supposed, the son of Joseph, which was (here, and before each of the following names the Arabic puts in “the son”) of Heli, which was of Mathat. From this passage Porphyry and Julian the Apostate accused Luke of being incorrect, because Joseph was not the son of Heli, but of Jacob, as S. Matthew says (ch. i.); and because S. Luke gives the other progenitors of Joseph and Heli names entirely different from those given them by S. Matthew. Besides, Jesus was not the son of Joseph, but born of the Virgin Mary. The solution given by some to this difficulty is that Joseph was by nature the son of Jacob, but by law the son of Heli. By the old law (Deut. xxv. 5) a surviving brother had to raise up seed to his dead brother, and the brother who had died childless was held to be the legal father of these sons. Now Jesca, says Euthymius, married Mathat, and by him had Heli, then she married Mathan, and by him had Jacob.

Heli died without issue, and his brother Jacob married his wife in accordance with the law, and Joseph was his son by her, being, therefore, naturally the son of Jacob, but legally of Heli. So Justinus, S. Jerome, Eusebius, Nazianzen, and S. Ambrose explain it. But, on the other hand, Heli and Jacob were only uterine brothers, and the law on the subject of raising up seed to a brother only applies to full brothers, sons of the same father; for they alone kept the name and heritage of the father. Besides, the introduction of Jesca is beside the point. For though her sons, Heli and Jacob, be connected through her, yet they would have no connection through Mathat and Mathan and the rest of their ancestors up to David. This, therefore, has nothing to do with the pedigree of the Blessed Virgin and Christ, in so far as showing Jesus to be of the seed of David according to the flesh is concerned. For if Jesus be descended from Jesca and Mathat, He could not be also descended from Jesca and Mathan; how, then, is He set down as the descendant of both Mathan and Mathat?

My opinion is that in the time of Christ it was very well known that Mathan was the common grandfather of Joseph and the Blessed Virgin; and that Jacob, the father of Joseph, and Heli, or Joachim, the father of the Blessed Virgin, were full brothers - as Francis Lucas holds - or rather, that Jacob was the brother of S. Anne, the wife of Heli, or Joachim, and mother of the Blessed Virgin; hence the genealogy of one is the genealogy of the other. For the Blessed Virgin was descended, through her mother, from Jacob, Mathan, and Solomon, and, through her father, Joachim or Heli, from Mathat and Nathan. So S. Matthew gives the genealogy of the Blessed Virgin through her mother S. Anne, while S. Luke gives it through her father Heli, or Joachim, so that Christ may be shown to be descended of the seed of David in both ways. There is no other better way than this of reconciling the genealogies given by SS. Matthew and Luke. Moreover, it is the common opinion of S.

Augustine, Denis the Carthusian, Cajetan, Jansenius, and other doctors whom Suarez quotes (pt. iii., quæst. xxvii. a. 1, disp. 3, sect. 2) that S. Luke traces the genealogy of Christ through Heli, or Joachim, the father of the Blessed Virgin. Hence it must follow that S. Matthew’s genealogy is traced through S. Anne, and that she was the daughter of Mathan; for otherwise all her ancestors, whom S. Matthew recounts, belong only to Joseph, and not to the Blessed Virgin and Christ. S. Matthew then traces Christ’s descent through His father Joseph, S. Luke through His mother, the Blessed Virgin; both lines are united in David, but after him separate through his two sons Solomon and Nathan. And again these two lines of Nathan and of Solomon unite in S. Anne, the daughter of Mathan, and sister of Jacob, Joseph’s father. Sts. Joachim and Anne, Pray for us! Posted by Father Ryan Erlenbush

Question: Who was the husband of Saint Anne and father of the Virgin Mary?
Answer: SAINT JOACHIM