Anne and Joachim

(1 Sm 1:1-28). Samuel's parents Elkanah and Hannah had no child. Hannah went to the Temple and prayed for help, promising to dedicate her child to God. After Samuel was weaned, Hannah brought her son to the Temple and presented him to God. The name “Anne,” Mary's legendary mother, may be derived from “Hannah.” In 550, a church in honor of Anne was built in Constantinople. In 1378, under Pope Urban VI, July 26 was named the day of celebration for Anne. In 1584 Pope Gregory XIII extended her feast to the whole Latin Church. The feast of St. Joachim was introduced in the west in the fifteenth century and has been commemorated on different dates. Joachim's commemoration was joined with Anne in the 1969 Roman calendar. The Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary are commemorated in the Episcopal calendar of the church year on July 26. The collect in Lesser Feasts and Fasts for this day asks God the Father that “we all may be made one in the heavenly family of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”