St. Anne
The mother of the Virgin Mary in Christian tradition; she is named in no canonical Gospel, and her story comes from the second-century Protoevangelium of James.
Canonized
St. Anne (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Sources
- General Roman Calendar, 26 July, memorial — 'Sts Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary'. Liturgy Office, England and Wales. https://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Calendar/Info/General-Roman-Calendar.pdf
- USCCB Liturgical Calendar 2027, 26 July — 'Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary', Memorial. https://www.usccb.org/resources/2027cal.pdf (The 2026 calendar omits it because 26 July 2026 falls on a Sunday and the memorial is suppressed — not because the US calendar differs.)
- Catholic Encyclopedia (Herbermann, 1907-1913), 'St. Anne' — 'all our information concerning the names and lives of Sts. Joachim and Anne' comes from apocryphal literature: the Protoevangelium of James (c. A.D. 150), the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, and the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary; of the Protoevangelium it says 'we can hardly accept as beyond doubt its various statements on its sole authority.' https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01538a.htm
- HISTORICITY: 'legendary' is a statement about the surviving sources, not about her. Anne is not named anywhere in the four canonical Gospels; the entire narrative — her name included — descends from second-century apocryphal texts. Her veneration is ancient and universal, and the field says nothing against it. Tier 2 carries no historicity_note, so this is stated in the one_line instead.
- STATUS: pre_congregation with status_year null. Formal canonization did not exist until roughly 993.