Commemorated on September 9 and July 25

The day following the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos (celebrated September 8), we celebrate the synaxis of Saints Joachim and Anna, honoring them as her parents.  According to tradition, Anna, the ancestor of God, lived for sixty-nine years, and her spouse Joachim, for eighty; according to one account, Saint Joachim died two years before Saint Anna. The Theotokos had been orphaned by both her parents already when she was eleven years of age, when she was living in the Temple.  Saint Anna is invoked for conceiving children, and for help in difficult childbirth.