Anne Mother of the Virgin

Description

Saint Anne, of David’s house and line, was the mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus according to apocryphal Christian and Islamic tradition. Mary’s mother is not named in the canonical gospels, but is mentioned as the daughter of Faqud in Quran. In writing, Anne’s name and that of her husband Joachim come only from New Testament apocrypha, of which the Gospel of James (written perhaps around 150) seems to be the earliest that mentions them.
The story bears a similarity to that of the birth of Samuel, whose mother Hannah (Hebrew: חַנָּה‬‎ Ḥannāh “favour, grace”; etymologically the same name as Anne) had also been childless. Although Anne receives little attention in the Latin Church prior to the late 12th century, dedications to Anne in Eastern Christianity occur as early as the 6th century. In the Eastern Orthodox Churches and Eastern Catholic Churches, she is revered as Hannah. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Hannah is ascribed the title Forebear of God, and both the Nativity of Mary and the Presentation of Mary are celebrated as two of the twelve Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church. The Dormition of Hannah is also a minor feast in Eastern Christianity. In Lutheran Protestantism, it is held that Martin Luther chose to enter religious life as an Augustinian friar after crying out to St. Anne while endangered by lightning.