Sts. Joachim and Ann are revered as the parents of the Blessed Mother. Devotion to these two saints started around the sixth century in the East. By the tenth century, this devotion had spread to most parts of the West.

There is little information known about the lives of Joachim and Ann. Most of the information is inferred from the life of Mary and how she acted. How Mary dealt with crisis and how she cared for Elizabeth when she was pregnant give clues to the influence of her parents. There is little direct information about these two saints in the Bible, but there is information about them stemming from legends written down more than a century after the passion of Christ.

St. Anne is Patron of Mothers, Grandmothers, Homemakers and Canada, St. Joachim is Patron of Grandfathers.

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