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Information:
| Feast Day: |
July 26 |
| Patron of: |
Fathers, Grandparents |
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Joachim (whose name means Yahweh
prepares), was the father of the Blessed Virgin Mary. If we
were to obey the warning of St. Peter Damian, we should
consider it a blameable and needless curiosity to inquire
about those things that the Evangelists did not deem it
advisable to relate, and, in particular, about the parents
of the Blessed Virgin (Serm. iii de Nativ. B.M.V.).
Tradition nevertheless, grounded on very old testimonies,
very early hailed Saints Joachim and Anne as the father and
mother of the Mother of God. True, this tradition seems to
rest ultimately on the so-called "Gospel of James", the
"Gospel of the Nativity of the Blessed Mary", and the
Pseudo-Matthew, or "Book of the Nativity of the Blessed
Virgin Mary and of the Childhood of the Saviour"; and this
origin is likely to rouse well-founded suspicions. It should
be borne in mind, however, that the apocryphal character of
these writings, that is to say, their rejection from the
canon, and their ungenuineness do not imply that no heed
whatever should be taken of some of their assertions; side
by side, indeed, with unwarranted and legendary facts, they
contain some historical data borrowed from reliable
traditions or documents; and difficult though it is to
distinguish in them the wheat from the tares, it would be
unwise and uncritical indiscriminately to reject the whole.
Some commentators, who believe that the genealogy given by
St. Luke is that of the Blessed Virgin, find the mention of
Joachim in Heli (Luke, iii, 23; Eliachim, i.e. Jeho-achim),
and explain that Joseph had, in the eyes of the law, become
by his marriage the son of Joachim. That such is the purpose
and the meaning of the Evangelist is very doubtful, and so
is the identification proposed between the two names Heli
and Joachim. Neither can it be asserted with certainty, in
spite of the authority of the Bollandists, that Joachim was
Heli's son and Joseph's brother; nor, as is sometimes
affirmed, from sources of very doubtful value, that he had
large possessions in herds and flocks. Much more interesting
are the beautiful lines in which the "Gospel of James"
describes how, in their old age, Joachim and Anne received
the reward of their prayers to obtain issue. Tradition has
it that the parents of the Blessed Virgin, who, apparently,
first lived in Galilee, came later on to settle in
Jerusalem; there the Blessed Virgin was born and reared;
there also they died and were buried. A church, known at
various epochs as St. Mary, St. Mary ubi nata est, St. Mary
in Probatica, Holy Probatica, St. Anne, was built during the
fourth century, possibly by St. Helena, on the site of the
house of St. Joachim and St. Anne, and their tombs were
there honoured until the close of the ninth century, when
the church was converted into a Moslem school. The crypt
which formerly contained the holy tombs was rediscovered on
18 March, 1889.
St. Joachim was honoured very early by the Greeks, who
celebrate his feast on the day following the Blessed
Virgin's birthday; the Latins were slow to admit it to their
calendar, where it found place sometimes on 16 Sept. and
sometimes on 9 Dec. Assigned by Julius II to 20 March, the
solemnity was suppressed some fifty years later, restored by
Gregory XV (1622), fixed by Clement XII (1738) on the Sunday
after the Assumption, and finally raised to the rank of
double of the second class by Leo XIII (1 Aug., 1879).
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