Saint Anne

Mother of Virgin Mary in Christian and Islamic traditions; unnamed in the New Testament or Quran

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Religious Figures rank#227
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Lived -55–12, aged 67

Religious Figures

Wikipedia
71 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
-55–12
Aged 67

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

The mother of Mary, grandmother of Jesus — yet her name appears nowhere in the canonical gospels. Christian tradition fills the silence, drawing from second-century apocrypha to give her identity and a husband named Joachim.

Biography

About

The Gospel of James, written around 150 AD, is the earliest text to name her: Anne, wife of Joachim. The canonical gospels stay silent on Mary's parentage; it's the apocrypha that supplied the lineage. Islamic tradition acknowledges Mary's mother in the Quran without naming her. From that narrow textual base, devotion built a figure central to Marian veneration across centuries — the grandmother present by inference, fleshed out by faith where scripture left only a gap.

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Saint Anne

Saint Anne

saidundated

O God of our fathers, bless me and hear my prayer, as You blessed the womb of Sarah, and gave her a son Isaac.

— Protoevangelium of James, 2.

Saint Anne

saidundated

As the Lord my God lives, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and it shall minister to Him in holy things all the days of its life.

— Protoevangelium of James, 4.

Saint Anne

saidundated