Weather – If it rains on St.
Ann's Day, it will rain for a month and a week [however, some people call the
rain on this day "Saint Ann's Dower" and consider it a good thing].
If on St. Anne’s day, the
ants are building up their sand-hills, it is a sign of coming severe winter.
Gardening – On St. Anne’s
day, the July grapes are ripe [and even if they aren’t quite, the July grape
leaves are big and afford abundant shade when climbing over an arbor. To sit in the arbor with a glass of a
previous year’s vintage on a summer’s evening…]
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
“The departure out of this life of St. Anne, mother of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God.”
In the traditional calendar,
(except for the Use of Paris, which celebrated St. Anne on the 28th)
today is the feast of Saint Anne, the grandmother of Jesus. Traditionally, her
husband Joachim has his own feast day on the 16th of August, and was
mentioned also on the 20th of March, the day of his birth, but
celebrating them both today makes sense, for theirs is a fine example of a
godly marriage, and, let’s face it, in the calendar of saints, there aren’t
many happily married ones to use as examples. We need all we can get.
Here is the account of Joachim
and Anne from the Golden Legend:
“Joachim, which was of
Galilee of the city of Nazareth, espoused Anne of Bethlehem, and they were both
just and without reproach or reprehension in the commandments of our Lord… and
thus lived twenty years in marriage without having any lineage. And then they avowed to our Lord that
if he sent to them any lineage they should give it to Him, for to serve Him.”
During one of the great
feasts in Jerusalem, Joachim was prevented by the high priest to bring his
offering, saying that his offerings were not acceptable to God, who had judged
him unworthy to have children, and that “a man cursed in the faith should not
offer to our Lord, nor he that was barren should be among them that had fruit…”
Ashamed and afraid of the recriminations of his family and neighbors, he went
off to the hills and abode there for forty days. It was there that an angel found him and declared that his
lack of children was no reproach to him, but God’s will, and reminded him that
several of the great men of the Hebrews – Isaac and Joseph, Samson and Samuel –
were born of mothers who had been barren for years. “And when He closes the
womb, He works so that He opens it after, more marvelously… And therefore Anne
your wife shall have a daughter, and you shall call her Mary, and she, as you
have vowed, shall be from her infancy sacred unto our Lord… And I give to you
the sign, that when you come to the golden gate at Jerusalem, you shall meet
there Anne your wife, which is much moved of your long tarrying, and shall have
joy of your coming.”
The angel gave like
assurance to Anne, and gave her the same sign, that of finding her husband at
the same city gate.
 |
| Giotto |
The Meeting at the Golden
Gate, with Joachim and Anne joyfully embracing, was a favorite subject for medieval
and renaissance artists, perhaps because it was one of the few times when
physical love could be depicted in iconography.
“And Anne conceived and
brought forth a daughter, and named her Mary.”
The rest of the story is
concerned with the upbringing and dedication of Mary at the age of three years,
when, according to the story, she went to live in the Temple.
Not content with that,
writers dabbled in genealogy and tried to tie in as many names from the
Biblical account as possible. An ancient account, supposedly written by
Hippolytus the Martyr, said that Anne was the third daughter of the priest
Matthew and Mary, his wife; that the eldest daughter, also named Mary , married
a man in Bethlehem and became the mother of Mary Salome; that the second
daughter, named Sobe, married a man in Bethlehem and had a daughter named
Elizabeth, who became the mother of John the Baptist.
The Golden Legend tells it
differently:
“And Anne had three
husbands, Joachim, Cleophas, and Salome; and of the first she had a daughter
named Mary, the Mother of God… And when Joachim was dead, she took Cleophas,
the brother of Joseph, and had by him another daughter named Mary also, and she
was married to Alpheus [who] had by her four sons, that was James the Less,
Joseph the Just, otherwise named Barsabee, Simon, and Jude. Then the second husband being dead,
Anne married the third named Salome, and had by him another daughter which yet
also was called Mary, and she was married to Zebedee. And this Mary had of Zebedee two sons, that is to wit, James
the Greater, and John the Evangelist.”
Yes, they were an imaginative lot.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ant: A heavenly blessing entered into Anne, through whom the Virgin Mary
was born for us.
V: Pray for us, blessed Anne.
R: That we be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Prayer: O God, who vouchsafed to grant to blessed Anne such grace that she
deserved to bear Thy most blessed mother in her most glorious womb, grant to us
through the intercession of Thy mother and sister the abundance of Thy
graciousness, so that we may embrace their commemoration with holy love, and by
their prayers be able to reach heaven, our native land. Through the same, our
Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of
the Holy Ghost, O God, world without end. Amen.
From the Suffrages to the
Saints, Hypertext Book of Hours.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
For this love charm, you
must start on the 23rd of July, fasting for three days on bread, water, and sprigs of
parsley. Nothing else. On the eve
of St. Anne’s feast day (the 25th) go to bed as soon as convenient, and
be silent from the time you undress. Get into bed, lie on your left side, with your head as
low as possible, [?] and repeat the following verse three times:
"Saint Anne in silver cloud
descend
Prove yourself a maiden’s
friend
Be it good or be it harm,
Let me have knowledge from
the charm.
Be it husband one, two,
three,
Let me in rotation see,
And if fate decrees me four,
(No good maid would wish for
more)
Let me view them in my dream
Fair and clearly to be seen;
But if the hateful stars
decree
Perpetual virginity,
Let me sleep on and dreaming
not,
I shall know my single
lot.”
===================================================================
Images:
Hours of Catherine of Cleves (c1440). Joachim and Anne
Engraving from a print in the Salisbury
Missal (1534) found in The Everyday Book and Table Book (William Hone, 1838)
Detail from Giotto, Legend
of St. Joachim, Meeting at the Golden Gate (1305)
