Joachim, the father of Mary, whose name means «God raised (him) up», came from the House of David. The couple had remained childless for twenty years. When the high priest rejected their offering in the temple because they had «not increased the people of God», Joachim felt deeply humiliated and fled to his flocks in the mountains. But soon afterwards, an angel is said to have appeared to him, announcing the birth of a child. They consecrated the joyfully awaited daughter, who would later become the mother of Jesus, to the Most High in the temple. Joachim is the patron saint of husbands.
Anna, the mother of Mary, has always been regarded as the ideal and role model of Christian mothers. She is therefore also venerated as the patron saint of wives and widows. Originally she is said to have been called Dinah and only after the birth of Mary was she called «Anna» (Hannah), i.e. «the one graced (by God)». The names of Mary’s parents are recorded for the first time in the so-called Protoevangelium of James, which was written around the year 150. The saint was often depicted in art together with her daughter Mary and the boy Jesus. St. Anne is the patron saint of Brittany, of women and mothers, widows, housewives, domestic servants, workers and lace makers, as well as the patron saint of a happy marriage and a wealth of children. In the late Middle Ages, numerous churches and chapels dedicated to St. Anne were built in connection with the growing veneration of the Virgin Mary, and the cult of Anne reached a peak in the Western Church. (Anja, Annina, Nina, Anita, Annika, Annette, Annabell, Antje, Anke, Anuschka).
