St Anne & Joachim: Grandparents of Jesus

st-anne-and-joachim

This saintly couple is parents to Mary and grandparents to Jesus. With such amazing offspring, Joachim and Anne must share an extraordinary love. They have long been held up as exemplars for married couples, and in fact, they are one of the few married couple saints cannonised in the Catholic Church.
We know very few facts about Sts. Anne and Joachim, the only recorded stories of them are from an apocryphal gospel dating from the 4th Century AD called the Protoevangelium of James. The legend told in this document says that after years of childlessness, an angel appeared to tell Anne and Joachim that they would have a child. Whatever their names or the facts of their lives, we can assume that Mary was raised in a Jewish family home faithful to God and to the religious traditions of her day such that she was led to respond wholeheartedly to God’s request with faith, “Let it be done to me as you will.”

(adapted from www.catholic.org/saints)

Talk about being blessed!

Not only did Joachim and Anne raise a sinless daughter, they also scored a perfect grandson! With such holiness among their offspring, they could be forgiven for having a spiritual inferiority complex. Yet, by all accounts, Joachim and Anne performed their parenting responsibilities with grace. Their feast day on July 26 is a day to honour them and all grandparents for their contribution to our lives.

Joachim and Anne were greatly honoured by God who gave them a daughter conceived without sin who was to become known as the Mother of God!

 

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Would like to thank the many grandparents who support your school or family? Generation Grand is the perfect thank you gift

 

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