Whatever their names, they were highly extolled by Saints John Damascene Epiphanius, and Gregory of Nyssa as the model for Christian spouses and parents, who principal duty is the holy education of their children. By this they glorify their Creator, perpetuate His honor on earth, and sanctify their own souls. Saint Paul says that it is by the education of their children that parents are to be saved. Nor does he admit anyone to serve the altar, whose sons do not, by their holy conduct, give proofs of a virtuous education. Nevertheless, many parents are more solicitous about establishing their children in the world than by providing them with a good example and teaching them Christian virtue.

Although nothing is known about either of them, tradition fills up the story of their lives. Joachim is said to have been born at Nazareth and married Anne when he was still a young man. He was a rich farmer who possessed great herds. Because they had no children for many years, Joachim was publicly mocked--to be childless was considered a punishment for unworthiness. One day the Temple priest even refused Joachim's offering of a lamb. In a last prayer for a child, he withdrew to the desert and fasted for forty days.

Anne's father is said to have been a nomadic Jew named Akar, who brought his wife to Nazareth for their daughter's birth. Anne, too, after her marriage to Joachim, was saddened that God had not blessed them with children. She would weep and pray for God to answer her prayer. One day as she was praying beneath a laurel tree feeling that even Joachim had abandoned her (he was in the desert), an angel is said to have told her that God had heard her prayers. She would have a child who would be praised throughout the world. Anne replied, "As my God lives, if I should conceive either a boy or a girl, the child shall be a gift to my God, serving Him in holiness throughout the whole of its life."

Then the angel told her to run and meet her husband, who in obedience to another angel, was returning with his herds. They met by the Golden Gate and from that time Anne prepared for the blessed event. Saint Anne gave birth to Mary when she was about 40. It is said that Anne kept her promise and placed Mary in the service of God at the Temple when she was but three years old. According to tradition, she and Joachim lived to see the birth of Jesus and Joachim died just after seeing his divine grandchild presented in the Temple at Jerusalem, and was buried in Jerusalem.

Emperor Justinian I built a church at Constantinople in honor of Saint Anne, about the year 550. Codinus mentions another built by Justinian II, in 705. Her body was brought from Palestine to Constantinople in 710, whence some portions of her relics have been dispersed in the West, where they are claimed by Duren (Rheinland, Germany), Apt-en-Provence (France), and Canterbury, Durham, and Reading (England).

The liturgical cultus of Saint Anne appears in the 6th century in the East and the 8th in the West. In the 10th century, feast of the Conception of Anne was celebrated in Naples, spread to Canterbury in about 1100, and was kept at Worcester soon after; however, it was not generally observed until late in the 14th century spurred by the growing interest in the Blessed Virgin. The cultus of Anne became an object of bitter attack by Martin Luther, especially the images of her with Jesus and Mary--a favorite subject of Renaissance painters. In response, the Holy See extended her feast to the Universal Church in 1584.

Joachim has been honored in the East from time immemorial; but only since the 16th century in the West. The cultus of Saint Joachim began in the East with artistic representations as on the columns of Saint Mark's in Venice, Italy--which date to the 6th century. The hesitancy of the Catholic Church in allowing an official cultus of Joachim can be seen in the authorization of the feast by Julius II, its suppression by Saint Pius V, and restoration by Gregory XV. Clement II placed it in August and Leo XIII raised its rank. In the West, Joachim is in the Roman Martyrology on March 20, but his feast was on August 16 until it was joined with that of Saint Anne.

The Bollandist Father Cuper has collected a great number of miracles wrought through the intercession of Saint Anne (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Farmer, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth, White).

In art, Saint Anne is often portrayed with the Virgin Mary holding the Infant Jesus in her lap; being kissed by Saint Joachim at the Golden Gate; in pictures of the birth of her daughter; teaching the young Mary to read or embroider (e.g., in 13th-century manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and wall-paintings at Croughton, Northantshire); or holding the Blessed Virgin in one arm and the Holy Child in the other (Roeder). There are pictures of Anne at Santa Maria Antiqua dating to the 8th century (Farmer).

Saint Joachim is generally shown as an old man leading the Blessed Virgin as a child. He may also be depicted bringing a lamb to the altar and being turned away by the priest; greeting Saint Anne at the Golden Gate; or carrying a basket of doves and a staff (Roeder). The most famous cycle of paintings of the two together are those of Giotto in the Arena Chapel at Padua, Italy, but the images were well known elsewhere.

Saint Anne is the patron of Brittany, childless women, housewives, cabinet makers, and miners (the result of a comparison between Mary and Jesus and precious metals) (White).