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Feast of St. Anne, Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary – July 26

St-Anne and Mary
St. Anne, Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary
St. Anne, Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary

St. Anne is the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Though she is not mentioned by name in the Bible, we know of her through early Christian writings, the most important of which is the Protoevangelium of James, written in about 150 A.D.

We are told that Anne, the wife of Joachim, was advanced in years before her prayers for a child were answered. An angel appeared and told her she would conceive a child who “shall be spoken of in all the world.”

St. Anne’s feast day is celebrated on July 26. She is known as the patron saint of mothers and women in labor, and minors.

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 8th-century fresco in the church of Santa Maria Antiqua, Rome. A shrine at Douai, in northern France, was one of the early centers of devotion to St. Anne.  Codinus mentions another built by Justinian II, in 705.

Her body was brought from Palestine to Constantinople  in 710, whence some portions of her relics have been dispersed in the West.  Father Cuper the Bollandist has collected a great number of miracles wrought through her intercession.  God has been pleased by sensible effects to testify how much he is honored by the devotion of the faithful to this saint, who was the great model of virtue to all engaged in the married state, and charged with the education of children.

When the French began to colonize modern-day Quebec, they brought their devotion to St. Anne with them—asking for her protection in the New World.

Two well-known shrines to St. Anne are that of Ste. Anne d’Auray in Brittany, France; and that of Ste. Anne de Beaupré near the city of Québec. The number of visitors to the Basilica of Ste. Anne de Beaupré is greatest on St Anne’s Feast Day, July 26, and the Sunday before Nativity of the Virgin Mary, September 8. In 1892, Pope Leo XIII sent a relic of St Anne to the church.

Novena to St. Anne

Say once a day for 9 days, especially beginning on 17 July and ending on 25 July, the eve of the Feast of St. Anne.

O glorious St. Anne, filled with compassion for those who invoke thee and with love for those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at thy feet and humbly beg of thee to take under thy special protection the present affair which I commend to thee.

/ Mention your intentions here /

Be pleased to commend it to thy daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and lay it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy outcome. Cease not to intercede for me until my request is granted. Above all, obtain for me the grace of one day beholding my God face to face, and, with thee and Mary and all the Saints, of praising and blessing Him for all eternity. Amen.

Good St. Anne, mother of her who is our life, our sweetness and our hope, pray to her for us and obtain our request.

Good St. Anne, mother of her who is our life, our sweetness and our hope, pray to her for us and obtain our request.

Good St. Anne, mother of her who is our life, our sweetness and our hope, pray to her for us and obtain our request.

Good St. Anne, pray for us.

Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Anne, and Joachim, we thank and love Thee, be there for us.

Sacramentals
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