Saint Anne

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.