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Memorial: 26 July
Profile
Husband of Saint Anne, elderly father of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Grandfather of Jesus Christ. Probably well off. Tradition says that while
he was away from home, he and Anne each received a message from an angel
that she was pregnant. Believed to have given Mary to the service of the
Temple when the girl was three years old.
Joachim is mentioned in neither historical or canonical writings. The
information we have on Joachim derives mainly from the apocryphal
Protoevangelium of James.
Born: Galilean
Died: the traditional tomb of Saint Anne and Saint Joachim was
rediscovered in Jerusalem in 1889
Name Meaning: Yahweh prepares
Patronage: fathers, grandfathers, grandparents
Representation: man bringing a lamb to the altar and being turned
away by the priest; greeting and/or kissing Saint Anne at the Golden Gate;
elderly man carrying a basket of doves and a staff; elderly man with the
child Mary
Reading
Joachim and Anne, how blessed a couple! All creation is indebted to you.
For at your hands the Creator was offered a gift excelling all other
gifts: a chaste mother, who alone was worthy of him.
Joachim and Anne, how blessed and spotless a couple! You will be known by
the fruit you have borne, as the Lord says: "By their fruits you will know
them." The conduct of your life pleased God and was worthy of your
daughter. For by the chaste and holy life you led together, you have
fashioned a jewel of virginity: she who remained a virgin before, during,
and after giving birth. She along for all time would maintain her
virginity in mind and soul as well as in body.
Joachim and Anne, how chaste a couple! While leading a devout and holy
life in your human nature, you gave birth to a daughter nobler than the
angels, whose queen she now is.
from a sermon by Bishop Saint John Damascene |
