About the life of St. Ann, we depend chiefly on the Protoevangelium of James, which dates only to the second century. In this document, we are told that Ann, wife of Joachim, was beneath a laurel tree near her home in Galilee, when an angel appeared and said to her, “Ann, the Lord has heard your prayer and you shall conceive and bring forth and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.” Ann replied, “As the Lord my God lives, 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 Ann became the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The devotion to St. Ann was known in the East in the fifth century but did not not arrive in the west until the thirteenth century. A shrine at Douai, in northern France, was one of the early centers of devotion to St. Ann. In 1382, her feast was etended to the whole Western Church and she became very popular, especially in France. The two best know shrines to St. Ann are at St. Anne d’Auray in Brittany, France at St. Anne-de-Beaupre in the province of Quebec, Canada.

St. Ann is the patroness of housewives, expectant mothers and miners. Her emblem is a door. She has been frequently represented in art, and the lovely face depicted by Leonardo da Vinci comes first to mind in this connection. The name, Ann, derives from the Aramaic Hannah, meaning “grace”. Her feast day is celebrated on July 26th.

To learn more about the history of the Mother of the Blessed Virgin, read her story at the following link.

History of the Mother of the Blessed Virgin