Novena to St Anne

The novena to St Anne is the nine-day prayer to the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary — the grandmother of Our Lord Jesus Christ — asking her powerful intercession for the graces a soul most needs: a good husband and a holy marriage, the gift of a child and a safe delivery, the peace of the family, and every cause the world calls hopeless. It is prayed most often in the nine days from 17 July to her feast on 26 July, though it may be said at any time of year. Below we give the full authentic prayer, the variants the faithful most often ask her for, the way to keep the nine days, and the true story of the saint the old English called simply Good St Anne.

Why we go to St Anne

Of St Anne, Sacred Scripture is silent; her name comes to us through the oldest tradition of the Church, and it is fitting. Anne is the Greek and Latin form of the Hebrew Hannah, which means grace — and she who bore the Mother of God is rightly named Grace. From the sixth century her cultus was kept in the East, and by the later Middle Ages devotion to her had spread through all Christendom, so that shrines like St Anne de Beaupré in Canada and St Ann's in Scranton draw pilgrims to this day. She is the patroness of wives and mothers, of women in labour, of the childless who long for a child, of the unmarried seeking a good spouse, of the poor, and of the whole Christian household. To ask her intercession is to place your need in the hands of the woman who raised the Blessed Virgin and held the Christ Child on her knee. If you are new to this form of prayer, see our guide to what is a novena.

The novena prayer to St Anne

This is the prayer at the heart of the devotion — the Glorious St Anne prayer kept at her great shrines for well over a century. It is said once on each of the nine days, with your intention named where indicated:

Glorious St Anne, filled with compassion for those who invoke you, and with love for those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present affair which I recommend to you under your special protection.

(Here name your request.)

Vouchsafe to recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to lay it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue. Cease not to intercede for me until my request is granted. Above all, obtain for me the grace of one day beholding my God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the Saints of praising and blessing Him for all eternity. Amen.

Then are said the great prayers of the Church:

Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory be to the Father…

And the novena closes each day with these invocations, the last of which the pilgrims of old repeated three times:

St Anne, help me now and at the hour of my death. Good St Anne, intercede for me.

Good St Anne, mother of her who is our life, our sweetness, and our hope, pray to her for us, and obtain our request. (three times)

Some keep the fuller form of the shrines, adding the Our Father and Hail Mary to the ejaculation O Jesus, Holy Mary, St Anne, help me now and at the hour of my death. Others join the daily prayer to a decade of the Rosary, for St Anne always leads the soul to her daughter, and her daughter to her Son.

The nine days

The traditional St Anne novena keeps one intention throughout, but the nine days invite the soul to grow, from sorrow for sin toward confident trust. A simple pattern, drawn from the old shrine devotions, is to dwell each day on one grace of hers: Day 1, contrition for sin under her motherly gaze; Day 2, the grace of a truly Christian life; Day 3, the virtues of the family and the home she made holy; Day 4, patience in suffering, as she suffered her long childlessness; Day 5, perseverance in prayer when God seems to delay; Day 6, purity and the spirit of penance; Day 7, healing of body and soul, and submission to God's will; Day 8, her maternal mercy toward all who call on her; and Day 9, thanksgiving and lifelong dedication to her patronage. The prayer above serves for every day; only your meditation deepens.

The St Anne novena for a husband

Long before our own age, the faithful — and the English above all, in the days when they were still Catholic — brought St Anne their hope of a good marriage, and called her Good St Anne for the favours she obtained. She herself was a wife before she was the mother of Our Lady, and she knew a long trial before her prayer was answered; so the unmarried who seek a worthy spouse have always found in her a sure and understanding advocate. For this intention many add to the daily prayer above the old petition:

Good St Anne, you who during your life did suffer much and did wait long in patience upon the will of God, obtain for me, if it be for His glory and my salvation, a good and God-fearing spouse, one who will help me to serve God faithfully and to raise a Christian family. And if such be not the Divine Will for me, obtain for me the grace to accept His holy will with a peaceful heart. Amen.

Name plainly the good you seek — a husband, or a wife — but ask first for God's will and for the grace to keep His commandments in whatever state He calls you to. There is an old folk cry, "St Anne, St Anne, find me a man," said half in play at her shrines; it is harmless as affection, but the true devotion is the sober one: to ask a holy grandmother for a holy marriage, and to trust her to obtain what is best. Those praying for a spouse often join this to the novena to St Joseph, the model of husbands, and the novena to St Rita for causes that seem impossible.

The St Anne novena for fertility, pregnancy and a child

Because St Anne conceived the Blessed Virgin after long years of barrenness, she is above all the patroness of the childless who long for a child, of expectant mothers, and of a safe delivery. The novena is the natural recourse of couples praying to conceive, of women carrying a child who ask a safe birth, and of parents commending a difficult pregnancy to her care. Pray the daily Glorious St Anne prayer, naming the child you desire or the delivery you dread, and add this petition where it fits:

Good St Anne, mother of the Mother of God, you who in your own barrenness were heard and given the holiest of daughters, obtain for me from God the gift of a child, and grant that this child, and every child of mine, may be born safely and be numbered among the children of God. Watch over me, and over all mothers, in the hour of our need. Amen.

For this same intention the faithful also keep the novena to St Gerard Majella, the patron of expectant mothers, and commend a good delivery and the nursing of a child to Our Lady under her old title of La Leche. As in every true devotion, we ask boldly and leave the answer to Providence, knowing that St Anne, who received her own child late but perfectly, understands this waiting from within.

The novena to St Anne and St Joachim

St Anne is never far from her holy husband, St Joachim, and many pray to the two together — the parents of the Blessed Virgin, the grandparents of the Redeemer, the model of a fruitful and God-fearing marriage. A novena to Sts Joachim and Anne keeps them jointly, and it is especially fitting for married couples, for the grace of holy parenthood, and for the sanctification of the home. In the traditional calendar St Anne's feast falls on 26 July and St Joachim keeps his own on 16 August, though the Church has always honoured the two as one household. To pray to both, simply name St Joachim beside his wife in the petitions above — the household from which came Mary and, through Mary, Christ.

A short St Anne prayer

When the nine full days cannot be kept, the whole devotion may be carried in a single line, said morning and night through the nine days:

St Anne, mother of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, grandmother of Our Saviour, pray for us and obtain our request. St Anne, help me now and at the hour of my death.

This short form is enough where time or memory fails; it names who she is and what we ask, and God does not weigh the length of our words.

How to pray the St Anne novena

A novena is nine days of steady, trusting prayer. The classic way to keep this one is to begin on 17 July so that the ninth day falls on 26 July, the feast of St Anne — but you may start on any day the need arises, and pray the nine days through to their end. Choose a fixed hour, morning or evening. Each day say the Glorious St Anne prayer above, name your one intention throughout the nine days, add the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be, and close with the invocations. Where you can, join the novena to Holy Mass, to Confession and Communion, or at least to a decade of the Rosary. Above all, pray in submission: ask plainly for the favour you seek, and resign it into God's wiser will with the words Thy will be done. A novena does not compel God; it commends a trusting soul to a powerful intercessor and waits in peace.

Who is St Anne? The story of Our Lady's mother

St Anne was the wife of St Joachim and the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary — and so, in the flesh, the grandmother of Jesus Christ. Holy Scripture does not name her; her memory is preserved in the most ancient tradition of the Church, gathered in early writings such as the Protevangelium of James. According to that venerable account, Joachim and Anne were advanced in years and childless, and their barrenness was reproached to them as a mark of God's displeasure. Joachim withdrew into the wilderness to fast and pray for forty days; and Anne, mourning beneath a laurel in her garden, was visited by an angel who said to her: "Anne, the Lord hath heard thy prayer, and thou shalt conceive and bring forth, and thy seed shall be spoken of in all the world." And Anne vowed that the child, whether son or daughter, should be given to the Lord and minister to Him all its days — a promise the Church keeps in the feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, for which the faithful pray the novena for the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In due time was born of them Mary, who was to be the Mother of God.

The story echoes, by God's own design, the birth of the prophet Samuel to another Hannah who prayed in her barrenness (1 Kings, or 1 Samuel, chapter 1) — a sign that the God who opens the closed womb was preparing the greatest of His works. The devotion to St Anne is very old: the Emperor Justinian dedicated a shrine to her at Constantinople in the sixth century, and popes of the eighth century honoured her at Rome. In the fourteenth century her cultus flowered across the West; Pope Urban VI enjoined her feast in 1382 at the petition of the English, and it was extended to the whole Latin Church in 1584. Her feast is kept on 26 July.

Because she gave the world its holiest Mother, and because her own prayer was heard after long trial, St Anne is honoured as the patroness of wives, of mothers, of women in childbirth, of the barren who long for a child, of the unmarried seeking a holy spouse, of the poor, and of the Christian family. What the Church begs through her is what she herself received: that God would look upon our need, and answer it, in His own time, to His glory and our salvation.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you pray the St Anne novena?

Pray it over nine consecutive days. Each day, at a fixed hour, make the Sign of the Cross, say the Glorious St Anne prayer given above, name your one intention (kept the same throughout the nine days), add an Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be, and close with the invocation St Anne, help me now and at the hour of my death. Join it to Mass or the Rosary where you can, and always pray in submission to God's will.

When does the St Anne novena start?

Traditionally it begins on 17 July and ends on 26 July, the feast of St Anne, so that the ninth day is her feast. This is the origin of the great solemn novenas kept each July at shrines such as St Ann's in Scranton. But the novena may be begun on any day of the year: count nine days from the day you start and pray each one through.

What is the St Anne novena for?

It is prayed for the graces St Anne is especially trusted to obtain: a good husband or spouse and a holy marriage; the gift of a child, and a safe pregnancy and delivery; the peace and holiness of the family; healing in sickness; and any grave or seemingly impossible need. Because she was heard after long barrenness, the childless and the unmarried have always found her a most understanding advocate.

Is there a St Anne novena for a husband?

Yes. St Anne has been invoked for centuries by the unmarried seeking a good and God-fearing spouse — she was herself a wife, and waited long upon God's will before her own prayer was answered. Pray the daily novena prayer and add the petition for a worthy spouse given above, asking always first for God's will and the grace to serve Him faithfully in whatever state He appoints.

Why is St Anne the patron saint of fertility and pregnancy?

Because tradition holds that she and St Joachim were childless into old age, and that St Anne conceived the Blessed Virgin only after long, faithful prayer — an echo of Hannah, the barren mother of Samuel who was heard by God. For this reason she is the patroness of the childless who long for a child, of expectant mothers, and of a safe delivery, and her novena is a favoured recourse of couples praying to conceive.

Who was St Anne, and when is her feast day?

St Anne was the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary and thus the grandmother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the wife of St Joachim. Scripture does not name her; her memory comes down through the Church's ancient tradition. Her feast is kept on 26 July; in the traditional calendar her husband, St Joachim, keeps his own feast on 16 August.

Can I pray the St Anne novena with St Joachim?

Yes, and many do. St Anne and St Joachim are honoured together as the parents of Our Lady and the grandparents of Christ, the model of a holy marriage. Simply name St Joachim beside his wife in the prayers, or keep a joint novena to Sts Joachim and Anne. In the traditional calendar St Anne's feast is 26 July and St Joachim's is 16 August.

Pray this novena to St Anne with day-by-day reminders and audio, in Latin and your own language, in the Iter Fidei app. Download it here.

Sources. Holy Scripture (1 Samuel 1, the barrenness and prayer of Hannah); Butler's Lives of the Saints (St Anne, Matron, 26 July); the ancient tradition of the Protevangelium of James on Sts Joachim and Anne; the traditional novena prayer Glorious St Anne, filled with compassion, with the invocation St Anne, help me now and at the hour of my death, as kept in the shrine devotions to St Anne; and the traditional feasts of St Anne (26 July) and of St Joachim (16 August).