A saint's day
Sts Joachim and Anna
Joachim, of the house of David, and Anna, daughter of the priest Matthan, lived at Nazareth in love and devotion but were childless into old age and bore the scorn of their neighbors. They never grumbled but prayed, and an angel announced to each of them that a daughter would be born through whom salvation would come to the whole world; Anna conceived the Virgin Mary, and they brought her to the Temple at three. The Church honors them as the grandparents of Christ.
The dates
- Kept on
- 9 September (22 September on the Old Calendar)
- Next, New Calendar
- Next, Old Calendar
The New Calendar (the Greek, Antiochian, Romanian and Bulgarian churches, the OCA and most converts) keeps fixed feasts on the church date; the Old Calendar (the Russian, Serbian and Georgian churches, Jerusalem and Mount Athos) keeps them 13 days later. Pascha and the feasts that follow it are kept on the same day by both.
How the day is kept
The Church keeps them the day after the Nativity of the Mother of God.
Childless couples pray to them for a child and ask for a moleben to Sts Joachim and Anna, for the Church sings that Anna was released from the bonds of barrenness.
Name days for Anna vary: Greeks usually keep the feast of St Anna's conception of the Mother of God or the feast of her own Dormition.
Name days
These names keep their name day on this feast: