Pictured on this holy card is St. Anne instructing the child Mary. On the back is a prayer to St. Anne and St. Joachim that reads:
Dear St. Anne and St. Joachim, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and grandparents of Jesus, our Divine Lord, listen with pity to the petition which your loving and trustful client humbly presents before you. Surely dear Saints, you are both very dear to the Heart of Him Whose beloved Mother was your tender and devoted child! Can He refuse anything to you, in whose veins the same blood flowed which afterwards furnished the precious price of our redemption? Great Saints, nothing can be impossible to your power and influence over the little Jesus, "Who grew strong in grace and wisdom" under the maternal care and direction of your glorious Daughter, the Queen of Heaven and Earth. In mercy and compassion, be like Him "Who went about doing good," and come to the assistance of your servant in this great necessity! St. Anne, St. Joachim, dear parents of her who is our life, our sweetness and our hope, pray to her for us and obtain our request! Amen.
St. Anne (Ann, Anna)
Feast Day:
Roman Rite Calendar - 07/21
Patron Of:
Cabinet Makers, Canada, Grandmothers, Mothers, Horseriders, Housekeepers, Women In Labor, Carpenters, Against Poverty, Sterility
Mother of Our Lady. Grandmother of Jesus Christ. Wife of Saint Joachim. Probably well off. Tradition says that Anne was quite elderly when Mary was born, and that she was their only child. The belief that Anne remained a virgin in the conception and birth of Mary was condemned by the Vatican in 1677. Believed to have given Mary to the service of the Temple when the girl was three years old. Devotion to her has been popular in the East from the very early days of the Church; widespread devotion in the West began in the 16th century, but many shrines have developed since.