Novena to Sts Joachim And Anne

The novena to Sts Joachim and Anne is nine days of prayer to the father and mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary — the grandparents of Our Lord Jesus Christ — asking their intercession most often for children and grandchildren, for the grace of conceiving a child, for the sanctifying of families, and for a holy and faithful marriage. It is prayed above all in the nine days leading up to their feast, beginning 18 July and ending on 26 July, the day the Church keeps St Anne. Below we give the full novena prayer, the older traditional prayer to St Anne that many join to it, how to pray the nine days, and the story of these two hidden saints who raised the Mother of God.

A brief and honest word on the calendar first. In the traditional Roman calendar of 1962, these are two saints with two feasts: St Anne on 26 July and St Joachim on 16 August. The single joint feast of "Sts Joachim and Anne" on 26 July, on which most modern novenas are built, is an arrangement of the reformed calendar. The saints themselves are ancient and wholly part of the Church's treasury; we give the widely-sought joint novena in full because it is orthodox and much prayed, and note the traditional feasts so those attached to the 1962 books can keep them rightly. If the nine days and their meaning are new to you, see our guide to what is a novena.

The full novena to Sts Joachim and Anne

This is the prayer at the heart of the devotion, said once on each of the nine days. Name your intention where the prayer marks it, and keep the same intention through all nine days.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

O Holy Mother and Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as parents, you guided and nurtured Mary and, under your protection and love, watched her grow in holiness. Through your faithfulness and goodness the will of God was fulfilled; the fruits of your virtue and faith brought salvation to the whole world with the birth of the Infant Jesus.

Most Holy Saints Anne and Joachim, come close to us and guide our hands and our hearts in the way of virtue. Help us to raise our children and grandchildren with a gentle heart as you did. Show us how to bring up our children in the faith and to lead our families into the light of Jesus. Remain close to us and help us on our journey to salvation.

Sts Anne and Joachim, we place our petitions in your hands and ask that you lay them before the Child Jesus. Grant this, my request (here name your intention), but only if it be for the greater glory of God and the good of my soul.

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

St Anne and St Joachim, pray for us.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Because St Anne carries so much of this devotion in her own right — she is by far the more widely venerated of the two — many join to the daily prayer the older traditional prayer to her, given next. For the full devotion to Mary's mother on her own, see our novena to St Anne and the life of St Anne.

The traditional prayer to St Anne

This older prayer, found in the classic prayer-books, is the one from which the modern novena above descends. Many pray it as the second prayer of each day:

O glorious St Anne, filled with compassion for those who invoke thee, and with love for those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of my troubles I cast myself at thy feet and humbly beg of thee to take the present intention which I recommend to thee in thy special care. (Here name your request.)

Vouchsafe to recommend it to thy daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and 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 thee and Mary and all the saints praising and blessing Him for all eternity. Amen.

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)

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul.

The novena for grandparents

Sts Joachim and Anne are the grandparents of Jesus Christ, and for that reason they are honoured above all others as the patron saints of grandparents. A great many bring this novena to them precisely for the grandparents' work: that the old may hand down the faith to the young, that families may be bound across the generations in one household of faith, and that grandmothers and grandfathers may have the health, patience, and holiness to be to their grandchildren what Anne and Joachim were to the Christ Child's own mother. Name your grandchildren by name, and ask these two — who prepared a home from which the Redeemer would come — to keep your family in the light of Jesus. It is a devotion that sits naturally beside the Holy Family novena.

The novena to conceive a child

This is the oldest and most tender of all the intentions brought to St Anne and St Joachim. The tradition, drawn from the ancient account of Mary's birth, holds that Joachim and Anne were long childless and bore that reproach for years, until at last, after much prayer and fasting, God granted them the child who would be the Mother of God.

Because of this, they have been invoked for centuries by married couples longing for a child, by women who cannot conceive, and by mothers in the hardship of childbirth — St Anne is a patroness of expectant mothers and of women in labour. Bring them your longing plainly, and pray in the same trust they kept through their own long waiting. Many join this petition to our novena for fertility, to conceive a baby, and, remembering the promised child that was Our Lady herself, to the Annunciation nine-month novena.

The novena for a holy marriage and family

Because Joachim and Anne kept a faithful marriage through years of trial and made of their home the cradle of the Immaculate Virgin, they are also invoked as patrons of a happy, faithful, and holy marriage. Husbands and wives pray this novena for the healing and strengthening of their own marriage, for the renewal of Christian family life, and for the grace to raise their children in the faith as these two raised Mary. It is a fitting devotion for a wedding anniversary, for a marriage under strain, or simply for a household that wishes to be, in its small way, a Nazareth. The daily prayer above serves; add the intention for your marriage and your children by name.

How to pray this novena

A novena is nine days of steady, unhurried asking, made in imitation of the nine days the Apostles and Our Lady spent in prayer between the Ascension and Pentecost. To pray this one:

1. Begin on 18 July so that the ninth and last day falls on 26 July, the feast of St Anne — this is the customary timing. But the novena may be prayed at any time of year for a pressing need.
2. Pray the same prayer each of the nine days, once a day, at a fixed hour if you can, naming the same intention throughout.
3. Add the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be as the daily prayer directs, and, if you wish, the older prayer to St Anne given above.
4. Ask in submission to God's will — only if it be for the greater glory of God and the good of my soul. A novena does not compel God; it commends a need, in trust, to two saints very close to His heart, and leaves the outcome to Providence.

Where you can, join the novena to Holy Mass and Communion, or to a daily decade of the Rosary — a devotion in which we honour, in every Hail Mary, the daughter these two saints raised.

Who were Sts Joachim and Anne?

Sts Joachim and Anne are, by the constant tradition of the Church, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary and therefore the grandparents of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Their names come to us not from Holy Scripture — which is silent about Our Lady's parents — but from an ancient account of the birth of Mary, the Protevangelium of James, a work that the Church does not hold to be inspired or even reliable in its details, but from which she has retained, as a pious belief, the names Joachim and Anne and the memory of these two holy souls.

The name Anne (Hannah) signifies grace. The old account tells that Joachim's childlessness was made a public reproach to him, so that he withdrew into the wilderness to fast and pray for forty days, while Anne mourned and prayed at home; that an angel appeared to each of them with the promise of a child; and that Anne vowed to give the child to God. In time was born of them Mary, who would be the Mother of God. The Church retains the beauty of the story without vouching for its particulars, in the spirit of St Peter Damian, who thought it neither necessary nor seemly to pry too far into what the Evangelists chose not to tell us.

The cult of St Anne is ancient in the East — the Emperor Justinian dedicated a shrine to her in the sixth century — and was carried to Rome not long after. In the West her feast grew slowly, then, from the fourteenth century, enormously: Pope Urban VI granted her feast to England in 1382, and in 1584 it was extended to the whole Western Church, fixed on 26 July.

She is the patroness of mothers, grandmothers, married women, homemakers, women in childbirth, and of those who seek a good spouse or long for a child. St Joachim, of whom even less is recorded, was long honoured with St Anne; his feast in the Roman calendar was fixed on 16 August in 1913 by Pope St Pius X, while the Eastern churches and the Benedictines have kept the two parents together. Between them they gave the world, in the ordinary hidden faithfulness of a married home, the girl who would say yes to the angel — and so their intercession reaches, through Mary, to the very door of the Incarnation. In every Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary we praise the fruit of their household.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who were Saints Joachim and Anne?

They were the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the grandparents of Jesus Christ. Their names are not given in Scripture but come down to us by ancient tradition. Tradition also holds that they were childless for many years before God granted them Mary, the child who would become the Mother of God. St Anne's name means grace; both are honoured as models of faithful married and family life.

What are Sts Joachim and Anne the patron saints of?

Together they are the patron saints of grandparents, of married couples, and of families. St Anne in particular is patroness of mothers, grandmothers, married women, homemakers, women in childbirth, and those longing to conceive a child; she is also invoked by those seeking a good husband or wife. St Joachim is honoured as patron of fathers and grandfathers.

When is the feast of Sts Joachim and Anne, and when do you start the novena?

In the reformed calendar the two are kept together on 26 July, and the novena is prayed from 18 July to that day. In the traditional calendar of 1962 the feasts are separate: St Anne on 26 July and St Joachim on 16 August. Either way, 26 July is the customary day on which to end this joint novena; it may also be prayed at any time of year for an urgent need.

Is the novena to Sts Joachim and Anne the same as the novena to St Anne?

They overlap but are not identical. The novena to Sts Joachim and Anne honours both of Mary's parents together and is often prayed for grandparents, marriage, and family. The novena to St Anne honours Mary's mother alone, with her own older and richer body of prayer, and is especially sought for conceiving a child, for mothers, and for finding a spouse. Many pray both, and the traditional prayer to St Anne given above belongs to either.

Can I pray this novena to conceive a child?

Yes — this is one of the most fitting of all its intentions, precisely because tradition holds that Joachim and Anne themselves conceived Mary only after long childlessness and much prayer. Bring your longing to them plainly, ask in trust, and add only if it be for the greater glory of God and the good of my soul. Many join it to our novena for fertility.

Are Joachim and Anne in the Bible?

No. Holy Scripture nowhere names the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Their names and their story come from an ancient non-scriptural account, the Protevangelium of James, which the Church does not treat as inspired. She has kept, as a pious and honoured tradition, the names Joachim and Anne and the memory of these two saints, without vouching for the details of the legend — a sound and humble way to venerate what the Gospels left in silence.

Why do we pray to Mary's parents at all?

Because the saints in heaven pray for us, and few are nearer the heart of Jesus than the grandparents who helped raise His Mother. To honour Joachim and Anne is to honour the household from which Our Lady came, and to ask, through them and through her, the graces we need for our own families. It is the same confidence that leads us to the whole Litany of the Saints — that those who loved God on earth have not ceased to love us from heaven.

Pray this novena to Sts Joachim and Anne with day-by-day reminders and audio in the Iter Fidei app, in Latin and your own language. Join early access here.

Sources. Butler's Lives of the Saints (St Anne, 26 July; St Joachim, 16 August); the Protevangelium of James (ancient, non-canonical, on the birth of Mary), as summarised by Butler; the traditional novena prayer to St Anne (O glorious St Anne, filled with compassion) and the invocation Good St Anne, mother of her who is our life from the traditional prayer-books; the feast of St Anne extended to the universal Church (1584) and the feast of St Joachim fixed on 16 August by Pope St Pius X (1913).