The Apostolic Age · AD 4–70
Saint Anne
d. c. AD 12 (traditional) · Mother of the Virgin Mary · Jerusalem / Sepphoris (trad.)
The Apostolic Age
Who Saint Anne was
Grandmother of Christ, unknown to the canonical Gospels and known wholly through the second-century Protoevangelium of James, which supplies her name, her husband Joachim, and the barren-then-blessed nativity of Mary that seeded the Marian cult East and West. She enters the archive as the earliest figure the infancy apocrypha name by that name.
Also listed in women.
Common questions
When did Saint Anne die?
Saint Anne is dated d. c. AD 12 (traditional) in the archive, which places Saint Anne in the Apostolic Age (AD 4–70). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
Which early sources mention Saint Anne?
Saint Anne is named in 2 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Protoevangelium of James and Epiphanius of Salamis. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Saint Anne from?
The archive associates Saint Anne with Jerusalem / Sepphoris (trad.).
Who were Saint Anne’s contemporaries?
The archive links Saint Anne to 1 other figure, including Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.
Primary-source mentions (2)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Protoevangelium of James 4 (apocryphal infancy gospel, c. AD 145–160; ANF translation)
c. AD 175[Earliest attestation, ~140 years after her traditional lifetime, in a non-canonical infancy gospel — the text that supplies her name.] And, behold, an angel of the Lord stood by, saying: Anna, Anna, the Lord has heard thy prayer, and thou shalt conceive and shall bring forth; and thy seed shall be spoken of in all the world.Protoevangelium of James · source text
Panarion 78 (on the parentage of Mary)
c. AD 375Connected in the archive
People
Place
Places served
The one place the sources put Saint Anne.