Nothing is known of Mary's parents from the New Testament. Their names, Joachim and Anne, come from the second-century apocryphal Protoevangelium of James, and the Church has always been clear that this is the source. The veneration nevertheless rests on something certain: Mary had a father and a mother who raised her in the faith of Israel, and through them the promise made to Abraham reached the moment of its fulfillment. Devotion to Saint Anne appears in the Christian East by the sixth century and became widespread in the medieval West, where she was among the most beloved of saints, patroness of mothers, of women in labor, and of miners and cabinetmakers. Her celebration was fixed on July 26 in the Roman calendar under Pope Gregory XIII in 1584. Saint Joachim was honored on various dates over the centuries; the calendar reform of 1969 joined the two in a single obligatory memorial on July 26, which is how the Roman Rite keeps them today. White vestments are used, and the Gospel offered is the Lord's word to his disciples that many prophets and righteous people longed to see what they see. In 2021 Pope Francis instituted the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, observed on the fourth Sunday of July, near this memorial and deliberately tied to it. The pairing gives the day a pastoral shape: parishes visit the homebound elderly, honor grandparents at Mass, and pray for families in which faith is handed down across generations. The great shrines of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré in Quebec and Sainte-Anne-d'Auray in Brittany draw pilgrims around this date, and the memorial has long been a favorite of Catholic families praying for children.

Memorial

memorial

Ordinary time

July 26

memorial