Hannah

Saint Hannah the Prophetess was the mother of the prophet Samuel and the wife of Elkanah. She prayed with tears for a son and dedicated him to the Lord. Her story is told in the First Book of Kingdoms (1 Samuel), chapters 1 and 2. The Church honours her among the righteous of the Old Testament as an example of prayer and trust in God, and remembers her on 9 December.

Childlessness

Elkanah, of Ramathaim-⁠zophim in the hill country of Ephraim, had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none, "because the Lord had closed her womb." Each year Elkanah went up to Shiloh, where the tent of the Lord stood, to offer sacrifice. Peninnah grieved Hannah, especially at the feasts, and Hannah wept and would not eat. Elkanah comforted her: "Hannah, why do you weep? Am I not more to you than ten sons?"

The prayer

One day, after the sacrificial meal, Hannah rose and prayed to the Lord in bitterness of soul and with many tears. She made a vow: if the Lord gave her a son, she would give him to the Lord all the days of his life. The priest Eli saw her lips moving without a sound and thought she was drunk. Hannah answered, "No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I am pouring out my soul before the Lord." Eli said, "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant what you have asked of him." Hannah went away, ate, and her face was no longer sad.

She conceived and bore a son and named him Samuel, because, she said, "I have asked him of the Lord." Later the Lord gave her three more sons and two daughters.

The song of Hannah

When the child was weaned, Hannah brought him to Shiloh with an offering. She told Eli that she had prayed for this boy, that the Lord had granted her request, and that she was giving him to the Lord for all his days. Then she sang a song of thanksgiving (1 Kingdoms 2:1-10), which begins: "My heart is strengthened in the Lord."

The song says that none is holy like the Lord, that He humbles and raises up, makes poor and makes rich, kills and brings to life, and that the barren has borne seven. It ends with the words about the King and the Lord's "anointed," which the Church has read as a foretelling of Christ. The Song of the Mother of God in the Gospel of Luke (1:46-55) has many likenesses to it. Every year Hannah brought her son a little robe at Shiloh.

Veneration

Hannah's song is the third of the nine biblical odes that stand behind the canons sung at Matins. The Church remembers her on 9 December and holds her up as a pattern for mothers who entrust their children to God. Scripture says nothing about the end of her life.