Devotion to Saint Anne

Devotion to the saints certainly ranks high among the "Popular Devotions" in the Church, and the cult of Saint Anne is one of the most popular expressions of Catholic piety. We shall speak today about the cult of St. Anne.

First, what do we know about Saint Anne herself?

Concerning the mother of Mary and the grandmother of Jesus, the Sacred Scriptures are totally silent. Not even her name is mentioned. Whatever is related of the life of St. Anne is based upon pious traditions. Traditions collected by the early Christians who wanted to know more about the family of Jesus and Mary, especially Anne and Joachim, the parents of Mary and the grandparents of Jesus. It is not easy to discern in those traditions what is fact and what is legend. At any rate, this is what we read about Hannah and Joachim.

In Jerusalem there lived a rich and pious couple, Joachim and Hannah. They were childless, a condition that was held in bitter misfortune among the Jews. When on a feast day Joachim presented himself to offer sacrifice in the temple he was repulsed by a certain Reuben, under the pretext that men without offspring were unworthy to be admitted.

Whereupon, Joachim, bowed down with grief, did not return home, but went into the mountains to plead with God in solitude. Also, Anna, having learned the reason for the prolonged absence of her husband, cried to the Lord to take away from her the curse of sterility and promised to dedicate her child to the service of God.

Their prayers were answered. An angel came to Anna and said: "Hannah, the Lord has looked upon your tears. You shall conceive and give birth, and the fruit of your womb will be blessed by all the world." The angel made the same promise to Joachim, who returned to his wife.

Hannah gave birth to a daughter whom she called Miriam (Mary). Hannah offered her child to God in the service of the temple at a very tender age.

Today, in Jerusalem, you can visit a church dedicated to St. Anne that was built in the 6th century over a crypt said to be the house of Joachim and Anne, the place where Mary was born, the place where the Immaculate Conception took place. That site, by the way, is considered to be authentic by respected archaeologists. The stone I told you about the other day and which you see in front of the statue of St. Anne, was taken from the house of St. Anne, under the present church of St. Anne in Jerusalem. It was brought here in 1893. It recalls the origins of St. Anne.

Devotion to Saint Anne

The cult of St. Anne goes back to the early centuries of Christianity and is intimately linked with the cult of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her daughter. Many feasts of Mary were also inseparably feasts in honor of St. Anne her mother. Such were the feast of Mary's Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8), and of her birth (Sept. 8).

The cult of St. Anne was general in the Eastern Church before it spread to the West in the 8th century. During the 14th and 15th centuries it spread rapidly throughout Europe. Pilgrimages developed around her many shrines.

Of special interest to us is the famous shrine of St. Anne d’Auray, in Brittany, France (since 1623) and St. Anne de Beaupre, in Canada (since 1670). The devotion to St. Anne was brought to Canada and the United States by the first missionaries of North America, who came from France at a time when Saint Anne was becoming famous through her Shrine in Brittany. Today, St. Anne has hundreds of churches and many shrines dedicated to her and she is one of the most popular and beloved saints in America.

Devotion to Saint Anne in Fall River began a increase significantly when a French parish was founded and placed under her patronage in 1869. Organized pilgrimages to this new Shrine began in July of 1892 and have attracted thousands of pilgrims from all over. We have mentioned many of the devotional practices that have flourished in this shrine over the years. It has truly been a holy place where the faith of people has been kindled, and where God has manifested his pleasure by granting all sorts of blessings to people who have come here to pray to Good Saint Anne. Among the favors people have received in this hallowed shrine are countless supernatural healings.

Examples of Healings: More Noteworthy

On August 30, 1897, a baby girl was born in St. Anne's Parish, Fall River. The nurses immediately noticed that the baby's feet dangled like hands; they didn't have the shape of feet. When the doctor examined the feet, he said: "She was born like that, she will never walk. She is infirm for life." When the mother heard that, she took a medal that had been blessed and touched the relic of St. Anne, placed it between the two little feet and bound the feet in the shape of normal feet. The 3rd day the feet assumed the normal shape of feet and the child walked at the age of 11 1/2 months. That baby girl, named Maria, later became a Dominican Sister at Dominican Academy and lived a normal life to a ripe old age. She was known as Sr. Mathieu Dutil.

June 1904. A boy, who came with a group of some 250 pilgrims from Pawtucket, venerated the relic of St. Anne. Just then, a great commotion arose when the people saw the boy abandon his two crutches and metal brace and lay them at the feet of St. Anne.

Emilia Gagnon had been to totally blind for two years . She had two operations in Fall River and 23 in Boston. Finally, the Doctors gave up and told her she would be blind all her life. One day she came to St. Anne Church and told her story to Fr. Marchildon. He gave her some St. Anne Oil and told her what to do with it. Within three days, she recovered her sight in both eyes as if she had never been sick. That happened in 1914.

A most extraordinary story of a blind man who is cured. Henri St Rock, of Norwich, Connecticut, was not yet 11 years old when he got the German measles, and became stone blind for 7 months. That was in January 1917. The Doctors gave him up saying a cure was impossible. His mother took him to St. Anne on July 26, 1917 and the child got an instant healing. Perfect vision. Stranger still: for 7 years, he says, I would go blind again on the 1st day of July until the 26th, Feast of St. Anne, when the miracle was performed all over again. As if God wanted to convince disbelievers that the healing was not a coincidence.

Later, when he applied for a driver's license, he got it without any restriction. Yet, he was examined by many eye doctors who all said he was still physically blind. The optical nerves were purely and simply dead! As one Doctor put it: he didn't have a living cell in his eyes! Henri would say: "I see with the eyes of St. Anne." No wonder people came to pray to Saint Anne with FAITH!

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