Heralds of the Gospel Magazine, Vol. 20, nº 227, September 2026
Heralds of the Gospel Magazine, Vol. 20, nº 226, August 2026
Heralds of the Gospel Magazine, Vol. 20, nº 225, July 2026
Who are the Heralds of the Gospel?
Help of Christians
Christmas Carols
Some reflections on Saint Anne and Saint Joachim, whose feast day the Holy Church celebrates on July 26, came to mind.
From creatures to the Creator
These reflections arose as I visited and contemplated what I saw at a themed exhibition about the sea. There was a truly beautiful pearl.
Pearls, like diamonds, have names, but I’ve forgotten this one’s name. Yet I haven’t forgotten its beauty…
As I contemplated that rare object, I thought of the shell in which that marvel was formed. The shell in which this pearl was formed—I imagined—must have possessed some of its beauty.
From there, through a chain of associations, I quickly arrived at Saint Anne and Saint Joachim, whom the Eastern Catholic Liturgy picturesquely calls “the holy grandparents of God,” since they are the parents of Our Lady.
This distinguished couple of saints forms, so to speak, the shell that gave rise to a pearl… and what a Pearl!
And my thoughts and memories soared—from the sea to the stars, to Heaven, if you will.
Saint Anne and Saint Joachim are praised
Saint John of Damascus speaks of this shell:
O happy couple, Joachim and Saint Anne!
All creation is indebted to you. For it was through you that the creature offered the Creator the most precious of all gifts—namely, the pure Mother, the only one worthy of the Creator. […]
You raised the Pearl of virginity, She who was to be a virgin before giving birth, a virgin during childbirth, and would remain a virgin after giving birth; She who, in a unique way, would always preserve her virginity, both in her body and in her Heart. […]
You obtained from God that which transcends nature: you brought forth for the world the Mother of God, who became a mother without the participation of any man.
By leading a holy and pious life throughout your existence, you bore a daughter who is superior to the Angels and is now Queen of the Angels.
O most beautiful and sweetest young woman! O daughter of Adam and Mother of God! Blessed are the father and mother who bore you! Blessed are the arms that carried you! [1]
The Shell
Historical sources regarding the holy couple were compiled by the early Church Fathers, some of whom were contemporaries of the Apostles.[2]
Saint Joachim was a descendant of David, and Saint Anne, whose name in Hebrew Hanna means “grace,” was a descendant of Aaron.
Like most young women in Israel, Anna married very young and, though she was nearing old age, had no children—a fact considered by the Jews to be a kind of curse. For this reason, she and her husband were despised and even humiliated in public, including by priests of the Temple.
The couple accepted all this with peace of mind and resignation, often in a heroic manner.
These hardships were a source of bitter suffering for them until, already in their old age, both were visited by an angel who announced the birth of a son.
The Pearl
Saint Anne gave birth to a beautiful girl whom they named Mary, which in Hebrew means “Sovereign Lady.”
According to some researchers, the name derives from the Sanskrit Maryáh, which literally means “purity, virtue, virginity.”
Mary was chosen by God to be the Mother of His Divine Son, Jesus; she was conceived without original sin, full of grace—as the Angel Gabriel greeted her—Co-Redemptrix and universal Mediatrix of all graces.
It is her whom we have received as our Mother, according to the words of Jesus to Saint John the Evangelist: “Son, behold your Mother” (Jn 19:27).
In the words of the great Marian Doctor, Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort, the Most Holy Mary is the masterpiece par excellence of the Most High, whose knowledge and dominion He has reserved for Himself.
Mary is the admirable Mother of the Son […] and the faithful Spouse of the Holy Spirit, into whom only He can penetrate.
Mary is the Sanctuary, the resting place of the Most Holy Trinity, in which God dwells more magnificently and divinely than in any other place in the universe, not even excluding His throne above the Cherubim and Seraphim. [3]
This is how, from the pearl—whose name I have forgotten—I came to the shell and then began to consider another, more beautiful Pearl, leading me to a shell formed by two Saints whom we celebrate today: Saint Anne and Saint Joachim, the grandparents of Jesus.
