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Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Gospels tell us little about the home of our Lords mother. She is thought to have been of Davidic descent and to have been brought up in a devout Jewish family that cherished the hope of Israel for the coming kingdom of God, in remembrance of the promise to Abraham and the forefathers.

In the second century, a devout Christian sought to supply a fuller account of Marys birth and family, to satisfy the interest and curiosity of believers. An apocryphal gospel, known as the Protevangelium of James or The Nativity of Mary, appeared. It included legendary stories of Marys parents Joachim and Anne. These stories were built out of Old Testament narratives of the births of Isaac and of Samuel (whose mothers name, Hannah, is the original form of Anne), and from traditions of the birth of John the Baptist. In these stories, Joachim and Annethe childless, elderly couple who grieved that they would have no posteritywere rewarded with the birth of a girl whom they dedicated in infancy to the service of God under the tutelage of the temple priests.

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