April 20, SS. Joachim and Anne

SS. Joachim and Anne

By Alice Rocheleau

St. Anne was the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Joachim was her father. It was St. Anne that taught the Blessed Virgin Mary her prayers. We have a Shrine of Saint Anne in Fall River, where many novenas are made to her. St. Anne has answered people’s prayers who have a devotion to her; people have left their crutches at the shrine as a sign of their healing. July 26 is St. Joachim and St. Anne feast day. St. Joachim and St. Anne were the Virgin Mary’s parents. From an ancient tradition going back even to the second century, the parents of the Virgin Mary are known by the name of Joachim and Anne. Devotions to St. Anne are found in the sixth Century in the East, and by the tenth Century it was widespread in the west. St. Joachim was likewise honored, but at a more recent date.

My mother had a healing by St. Anne when she was a 1 year old; she had a big hole in her neck and it would have gone right through her throat. Her father took her to St. Ann in Fall River and Father Charles Bernard Sauval read a gospel and her father returned home with my mother, put her in her crib and the next day she was healed. He brought her back to St. Ann in Fall River: what a miracle! Father Sauval was the pastor in the Parish of St. Anne. He was born in France on March 25, 1848 (died in Fall River at. St. Anne’s on May 1, 1901).

My mother kept her picture in a frame for me and when I grew up she kindly gave it to me. When I go to St. Anne’s I put my hand on her casket and thank him in the Lord’s name for her healing, what a blessing for me. When my parents were living we went to St. Anne’s shrine in Canada every year, 14 times in all. I had a saintly mother.

I told Fr. Landry:

In Thanksgiving to you, St. Anne, I want to express all the gratitude that fills my heart. I thank you most sincerely for your extreme kindness to my mother and me. Alice, my mother, did pray to you and will continue to do so. My mom prayed to St. Anne for a healing due to a nervous condition that was very bad; I used to scream. I express my gratefulness to St. Anne. It is my Lord Jesus, whom I praise. Blessed are you, dear St. Anne so powerful and so kind. Blessed are you for what you did for my mother and me. I will always be grateful to you and I pray that many will be healed by my prayers through you.