![[Saint Joachim stained glass window]](http://saints.sqpn.com/stj20001.jpg "26kb jpg photograph of Saint Joachim with Saint Anne and the Blessed Virgin Mary stained glass window, Saint Joseph's Cathedral, Macon, Georgia, USA; artist unknown; photographed by the author, summer 2003")
Also known as
- Heli
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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 nor canonical writings. The information we have on Joachim derives mainly from the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James.
Born
- Galilean
- 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
Storefront
Additional Information
- Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
- Catholic Encyclopedia
- Encyclopedia Britannica
- Goffine’s Devine Instructions
- New Catholic Dictionary
- Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
- Protoevangelium of James - [ microsoft reader version / mobipocket version ]
Readings
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
MLA Citation
- “Saint Joachim“. Saints.SQPN.com. 11 April 2013. Web. 20 June 2013. <>