Anna

Saint Anna the Righteous is the mother of the Mother of God and wife of the Righteous Joachim. The Church honours her with him on 9 September (new style) as the parents of the Theotokos, to whom was given a daughter holier than all the saints and more honoured than the cherubim.

The story of their life comes from Church tradition, above all from the Protoevangelium of James, not from Holy Scripture. According to it, Joachim and Anna lived childless for a long time in prayer, until they received the promise of the birth of the Virgin Mary. Anna bore Mary and, when she turned three, they brought her to the Temple to be dedicated to God.

The relics of Saint Anna are venerated at the Skete of Saint Anne on Athos, and parts of the relics of Joachim and Anna at Kykkos Monastery in Cyprus. In Jerusalem stands the church of Saint Anne, built where the Mother of God is said to have been born. The wonderworking icon of Saint Anne at Bistrița Monastery in Neamț is much loved by Romanian believers.