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Sta. Ana (Madre de María, abuela de Jesús)
(Hebreo: Hannah, significa Gracia)
Toda nuestra información concerniente a los nombres y vida de San Joaquín y Sta. Ana, los padres de María, se derivan de la literatura apócrifa como: El Evangelio de la natividad de María, El Evangelio del Pseudo Mateo, y el Protoevangelio de Judas. Aunque la primera forma de la ultima de la cual las otras dos parecen haberse basado directa o indirectamente, se acepta fue escrita en el año 150 DC. difícilmente aceptada como mas antigua, debido a varias de sus frases de su propia autoridad. En Oriente el Protoevangelio tuvo gran autoridad y pare de é,l fueron leídas en las fiestas de María, por los Griegos, los Asirios, los Coptos y los Árabes. En Occidente, de todas formas, fue rechazado por los Padres de la Iglesia hasta que el contenido fue incorporado por Jcobus de Voragine en su "Leyenda Dorada" en el siglo XIII. Desde esta fecha, la historia de Sta. Ana se difundió en todo el occidente y fue ampliamente desarrollada, hasta que Sta. Ana, llego a ser uno de las más populares Santos de la Iglesia Latina también.
El Protoevangelio nos cuenta lo siguiente: "En Nazaret vivía allí, una rica y piadosa pareja, Joachim y Hannah. Ellos eran como niños. En uno de los días de fiesta, Joaquín se presento a ofrecer sacrificio en el Templo, él fue rechazado por un cierto Rubén, bajo el pretexto de que ningún hombre sin hijos era digno de ser admitido Desde entonces, Joaquín se inclino con dolor y no regreso a casa, sino que se fue a la montaña a quejarse a Dios en su soledad. También Ana, habiendo conocido la razón de la prolongada ausencia de su marido, clamo al Señor, le quitara de su esterilidad, prometiéndole dedicar a su niño, al servicio de Dios. Sus oraciones fueron escuchadas. Un ángel vino a Ana y le dijo: Ana, el Señor a mirado a tus lagrima, tu concebirás y darás luz y el fruto de tu vientre, será bendecido por todo el mundo. El ángel le hizo la misma promesa a Joaquín, quien regreso a su esposa. Ana dio a luz a una hija, a quien llamo Miriam (María).
Por lo que esta historia es aparentemente una reproducción de la historia Bíblica de la concepción de Samuel, cuya madre era también llamada Ana, aunque el nombre de la madre de María parece estar lleno de dudas.
Las supuestas reliquias de Sta. Ana, fueron traídas de Tierra Santa a Constantinopla en el 710 DC y estaban aun guardados ahí, en la Iglesia de Sta. Sofía en 1333. La tradición de la Iglesia en el Sudeste de Francia, pretendía que el cuerpo de Sta. Ana, fue traído a Apt por San Lázaro, el amigo de Jesús, fue escondido por San Auspicius (398 DC) y encontrado de nuevo durante el reinado de Carlo Magno; estas reliquias fueron llevadas a una capilla Magnifica en 1664. La cabeza de Sta Ana, fue guardada en Mainz hasta 1510, cuando fue robada y traida a Duren en Rheinland. Sta Anna es la Patrona de Britania, es venerada en Notre Dame d;Auray, También en Canadá donde ella es la principal Patrona de la Provincia de Quebec. Sta. Ana es Patrona de las mujeres que trabajan, y es representada sosteniendo a la Virgen María en sus piernas quien carga en sus brazos al niño Jesús. Ella es también la Patrona de los mineros, donde Cristo es comparado con el Oro y María con la Plata.. (New Advent)
Todas estas maravillosas historias-Leyendas que componen la tradición de los pueblos y los hacen vivir una realidad basada en la Fe, complementan la parte de un Jesús histórico que la Iglesia acepta por no contradecir ninguna de sus enseñanzas, antes bien, parecen robustecer la Fe y aunque no son consideradas como autenticas o basadas en los Evangelios Canónicos, fueron aceptadas por las hermanas Iglesias de Oriente y son veneradas en la aceptación de que María también tuvo padres a los que la Iglesia Latina también honra.
St.Anne
Anne (Hebrew, Hannah, grace; also spelled Ann, Anne, Anna) is the traditional name of the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
All our information concerning the names and lives of Sts. Joachim and Anne, the parents of Mary, is derived from apocryphal literature, the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Protoevangelium of James. Though the earliest form of the latter, on which directly or indirectly the other two seem to be based, goes back to about A.D. 150, we can hardly accept as beyond doubt its various statements on its sole authority. In the Orient the Protoevangelium had great authority and portions of it were read on the feasts of Mary by the Greeks, Syrians, Copts, and Arabians. In the Occident, however, it was rejected by the Fathers of the Church until its contents were incorporated by Jacobus de Voragine in his "Golden Legend" in the thirteenth century. From that time on the story of St. Anne spread over the West and was amply developed, until St. Anne became one of the most popular saints also of the Latin Church.
The Protoevangelium gives the following account: In Nazareth there lived a rich and pious couple, Joachim and Hannah. They were childless. When on a feast day Joachim presented himself to offer sacrifice in the temple, he was repulsed by a certain Ruben, under the pretext that men without offspring were unworthy to be admitted. Whereupon Joachim, bowed down with grief, did not return home, but went into the mountains to make his plaint to God in solitude. Also Hannah, having learned the reason of the prolonged absence of her husband, cried to the Lord to take away from her the curse of sterility, promising to dedicate her child to the service of God. Their prayers were heard; an angel came to Hannah and said: "Hannah, the Lord has looked upon thy tears; thou shalt conceive and give birth and the fruit of thy womb shall be blessed by all the world". The angel made the same promise to Joachim, who returned to his wife. Hannah gave birth to a daughter whom she called Miriam (Mary). Since this story is apparently a reproduction of the biblical account of the conception of Samuel, whose mother was also called Hannah, even the name of the mother of Mary seems to be doubtful.
The renowned Father John of Eck of Ingolstadt, in a sermon on St. Anne (published at Paris in 1579), pretends to know even the names of the parents St. Anne. He calls them Stollanus and Emerentia. He says that St. Anne was born after Stollanus and Emerentia had been childless for twenty years; that St. Joachim died soon after the presentation of Mary in the temple; that St. Anne then married Cleophas, by whom she became the mother of Mary Cleophae (the wife of Alphaeus and mother of the Apostles James the Lesser, Simon and Judas, and of Joseph the Just); after the death of Cleophas she is said to have married Salomas, to whom she bore Maria Salomae (the wife of Zebedaeus and mother of the Apostles John and James the Greater). The same spurious legend is found in the writings of Gerson (Opp. III, 59) and of many others. There arose in the sixteenth century an animated controversy over the marriages of St. Anne, in which Baronius and Bellarmine defended her monogamy. The Greek Menaea (25 July) call the parents of St. Anne Mathan and Maria, and relate that Salome and Elizabeth, the mother of St. John the Baptist, were daughters of two sisters of St. Anne. According to Ephiphanius it was maintained even in the fourth century by some enthusiasts that St. Anne conceived without the action of man. This error was revived in the West in the fifteenth century. (Anna concepit per osculum Joachimi.) In 1677 the Holy See condemned the error of Imperiali who taught that St. Anne in the conception and birth of Mary remained virgin (Benedict XIV, De Festis, II, 9). In the Orient the cult of St. Anne can be traced to the fourth century. Justinian I (d. 565) had a church dedicated to her. The canon of the Greek Office of St. Anne was composed by St. Theophanes (d. 817), but older parts of the Office are ascribed to Anatolius of Byzantium (d. 458). Her feast is celebrated in the East on the 25th day of July, which may be the day of the dedication of her first church at Constantinople or the anniversary of the arrival of her supposed relics in Constantinople (710). It is found in the oldest liturgical document of the Greek Church, the Calendar of Constantinople (first half of the eighth century). The Greeks keep a collective feast of St. Joachim and St. Anne on the 9th of September. In the Latin Church St. Anne was not venerated, except, perhaps, in the south of France, before the thirteenth century. Her picture, painted in the eighth century, which was found lately in the church of Santa Maria Antiqua in Rome, owes its origin to Byzantine influence. Her feast, under the influence of the "Golden Legend", is first found (26 July) in the thirteenth century, e.g. at Douai (in 1291), where a foot of St. Anne was venerated (feast of translation, 16 September). It was introduced in England by Urban VI, 21 November, 1378, from which time it spread all over the Western Church. It was extended to the universal Latin Church in 1584.
The supposed relics of St. Anne were brought from the Holy Land to Constantinople in 710 and were still kept there in the church of St. Sophia in 1333. The tradition of the church of Apt in southern France pretends that the body of St. Anne was brought to Apt by St. Lazarus, the friend of Christ, was hidden by St. Auspicius (d. 398), and found again during the reign of Charlemagne (feast, Monday after the octave of Easter); these relics were brought to a magnificent chapel in 1664 (feast, 4 May). The head of St. Anne was kept at Mainz up to 1510, when it was stolen and brought to Düren in Rheinland. St. Anne is the patroness of Brittany. Her miraculous picture (feast, 7 March) is venerated at Notre Dame d'Auray, Diocese of Vannes. Also in Canada, where she is the principal patron of the province of Quebec, the shrine of St. Anne de Beaupré is well known. St. Anne is patroness of women in labour; she is represented holding the Blessed Virgin Mary in her lap, who again carries on her arm the child Jesus. She is also patroness of miners, Christ being compared to gold, Mary to silver. (New Advent)
