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49-608: The story of Joachim and Anne first appears in the Gospel of James , part of the New Testament apocrypha . His feast day is 26 July, a date shared with Saint Anne. The story of Joachim, his wife Anne (or Anna), and the miraculous birth of their child Mary, the mother of Jesus, was told for the first time in the 2nd-century apocryphal infancy-gospel the Gospel of James (also called the Protoevangelium of James ). Joachim

98-590: A shepherd's staff for the Christian Word, and a basket of doves representing peace. He is almost always clothed in green, the color of hope. The name of the San Joaquin River dates to 1805–1808, when Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga was surveying east from Mission San José to find possible sites for a mission. The name was in common use by 1810. In Islam he is called Imran ( Arabic : عمران , romanized :  ʿImrān ). According to

147-515: A child. Joachim later returned to Jerusalem and embraced Anne at the city gate , located in the Walls of Jerusalem . An ancient belief held that a child born of an elderly mother who had given up hope of having offspring was destined for great things. Parallels occur in the Hebrew Bible in the case of Sarah , the wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac ; Hannah , the mother of Samuel ; and in

196-579: A conical Jewish hat . He is often treated as a saint, with a halo , but in the Latin Church , there was some awareness that he had quite likely died too soon to be counted as a Christian. Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate was a popular subject in artistic renditions of the life of the Virgin . Symbols associated with Saint Joachim include a book or scroll representing linen makers,

245-653: A feast-day in the Western church, and gives the contents of the cycles (described above and below) by: Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel , a typical Book of hours , the Hours of Catherine of Cleves , the cycle of the "Master of the Louvre Life of the Virgin", Ghirlandajo's Tornabuoni Chapel cycle, and the print cycles of Israhel van Meckenem and Albrecht Dürer. The sample above is correct in suggesting that

294-598: A leading authority, lists a total of 53 scenes before the Annunciation alone that occur in the art of the West, although only a single example (a 13th-century illuminated manuscript from Germany) containing all of these survives, and very possibly few others ever existed. Seventeen of these scenes preceded the Birth of the Virgin. These apocryphal scenes became much more restricted in the later Middle Ages. Certain events from

343-426: A midwife, and as they stand at the mouth of the cave, a cloud overshadows it, an intense light fills it, and suddenly a baby is at Mary's breast. Joseph and the midwife marvel at the miracle, but a second midwife named Salome (the first is not given a name) insists on examining Mary, upon which her hand withers as a sign of her lack of faith; Salome prays to God for forgiveness and an angel appears and tells her to touch

392-633: A perpetual virgin, and that the adelphoi were cousins of the Lord. Jerome's opposition to the Protevangelium led to a diminished influence and circulation in the western, Latin church. It was condemned by Pope Innocent I in 405 and rejected by the Gelasian Decree around 500. It was completely unknown in the West, and it was taken over by the widely read Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew , which popularized most of its stories. The Gospel of James

441-633: A small ivory only two scenes may be shown. The commonest pair in such a case is the Annunciation and the Nativity of Jesus , although there were times when the Coronation of the Virgin might displace one of these. The Tornabuoni Chapel has nine scenes (described more fully at that article). In this case, as very often, other scenes, such as the Visitation , including Mary are contained in

490-460: A subject new in the 14th century, and only popular from the 15th. The depiction of scenes from the life of the Virgin goes back to almost the earliest days of Christian art; a scene from the church at Dura Europas of about 250 has been interpreted as a procession of Virgins accompanying Mary to the Temple. Early cycles tend to include more scenes and details from the apocryphal Gospels, including

539-536: Is a second-century infancy gospel telling of the miraculous conception of the Virgin Mary , her upbringing and marriage to Joseph , the journey of the couple to Bethlehem , the birth of Jesus , and events immediately following. It is the earliest surviving assertion of the perpetual virginity of Mary , meaning her virginity not just prior to the birth of Jesus, but during and afterwards, and despite being condemned by Pope Innocent I in 405 and rejected by

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588-536: Is depicted as elderly and the father of grown sons; he has no desire for sexual relations with Mary. He leaves on business, and Mary is called to the Temple to help weave the temple curtain. One day while Mary is spinning thread for the curtain, the angel Gabriel appears and tells her that she has been chosen to conceive Jesus the Saviour, but that she will not give birth as other women do. Joseph returns and finds Mary six months pregnant, and rebukes her, fearing that

637-469: Is probably Syrian, and it possibly derives from a sect called the Encratites , whose founder, Tatian , taught that sex and marriage were symptoms of original sin . The gospel is a midrash (an elaboration) on the birth narratives found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke , and many of its elements, notably its very physical description of Mary's pregnancy and the examination of her hymen by

686-463: Is the earliest assertion of her perpetual virginity , meaning her virginity not just prior to the birth of Jesus, but during the birth and afterwards. Its explanation of the gospels' "brothers of Jesus" (the adelphoi ) as the offspring of Joseph by an earlier marriage remains the position of the Eastern church, but in the West, influential theologian Jerome asserted that Joseph himself had been

735-517: Is unknown. Early studies assumed a Jewish milieu, largely because of its frequent use and knowledge of the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures); further investigation demonstrated that it misunderstands and/or misrepresents many Jewish practices, but Judaism at this time was highly diverse, and recent trends in scholarship do not entirely dismiss a Jewish connection. Its origin

784-704: The Bodmer Library , Geneva, while the fullest is a 10th-century Greek codex in the Bibliothèque Nationale , Paris. The first widely printed edition (as opposed to hand-copied manuscripts) was a 1552 edition printed in Basel, Switzerland, by Guillaume Postel , who printed his Latin translation of a Greek version of the work. Postel also gave the work the Latin name Protevangelion Jacobi (Proto-Gospel of James) because he believed (incorrectly) that

833-410: The Gelasian Decree around 500, became a widely influential source for Mariology . The Gospel of James was well known to Origen in the early third century and probably to Clement of Alexandria at the end of the second, so is assumed to have been in circulation soon after circa 150 AD. The author claims to be James the brother of Jesus by an earlier marriage of Joseph, but in fact his identity

882-707: The New Testament in the case of the parents of John the Baptist . The cycle of legends concerning Joachim and Anne was included in the Golden Legend (around 1260) by Jacobus de Voragine . This cycle remained popular in Christian art until the Council of Trent (1545–1563) restricted the depiction of apocryphal events. No liturgical celebration of Saint Joachim was included in the Tridentine calendar . It

931-516: The Quran in Surah Al Imran , Imran is the father of Maryam and grandfather of ʿIsa . [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). " St. Joachim ". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company. Gospel of James The Gospel of James (or the Protoevangelium of James )

980-591: The 13th century of the illuminated Book of hours gave another important location for cycles, as did the gradual development of more sophisticated altarpieces for the Lady Chapel , or at least a side-altar, which all large churches had. With the arrival of the old master print , series of the Life were popular, and were often among the most ambitious works of printmaking artists. Martin Schongauer 's Death of

1029-646: The 15 decades of the Rosary also influenced selection of scenes, for example in the standardised illustrations for the Speculum Humanae Salvationis . Theological developments also influenced selection, especially those concerning the Death of the Virgin and the Assumption , with the latter gradually replacing the former in the West. The table below shows whether a scene was the subject of

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1078-718: The Annunciation and the Nativity were the only indispensable scenes; the Louvre cycle probably came from an altarpiece with a missing Annunciation as its main panel. The Nativity is always represented, but this may be done by the Nativity itself, the Adoration of the Shepherds, or the Adoration of the Magi – or by a combination of these three. Although the eight scenes for Books of Hours were the standard selection, followed for example by

1127-736: The Christ Child, upon which her hand is healed. The gospel concludes with the visit of the Three Magi , the massacre of the innocents in Bethlehem, the martyrdom of the High Priest Zechariah (father of John the Baptist ), the election of his successor Simeon, and an epilogue telling the circumstances under which the work was supposedly composed. The Gospel of James was a widely influential source for Christian doctrine regarding Mary . According to Bernhard Lohse, it

1176-619: The First seven steps of the Virgin were celebrated by an Orthodox feast day – but the 16 scenes taken to reach a point before the Visitation are similar to the 15 taken in Giotto's near-contemporary cycle. When the Chora cycle resumes, it has become part of the Life of Christ beginning with his Incarnation, as has Giotto's and many Western examples. The Giotto cycle is very full at 26 scenes, but in

1225-613: The Gospel of James does not advance the idea of Mary's Immaculate Conception . Various manuscripts place the birth of Mary in the sixth, seventh, eighth, or ninth month, with the oldest having the seventh; this was in keeping with both the Judaism of the period, which had similar seventh-month births for significant individuals such as Samuel , Isaac , and Moses , as the sign of a miraculous or divine conception. Further signs of Mary's supremely holy nature follow, including Anne's vow that

1274-548: The Gospel of James was originally composed in Greek. Over 100 Greek manuscripts have survived, and translations were made into Syriac , Ethiopic , Sahidic Coptic , Georgian , Old Church Slavonic , Armenian , Arabic , and presumably Latin , given that it was apparently known to the compiler of the Gelasian Decree. The oldest is Papyrus Bodmer 5 from the fourth or possibly third century, discovered in 1952 and now in

1323-574: The Life of Mary were less frequent in the West than the East until the Gothic period. The cycle of the Nativity in the tympanum of the right portal of Chartres Cathedral is the earliest Western monumental cycle to appear under a large enthroned Virgin and Child. Such cycles continued to appear in prominent positions, gradually becoming less common than scenes of the Passion of Christ . The evolution during

1372-511: The Life were celebrated as feasts by the Church, and others were not; this greatly affected the frequency with which they were depicted. Other Marian devotional practices affected the length and composition of cycles; Books of Hours often had eight scenes to go with the eight sections of the text of the Hours of the Virgin . The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin , the Seven Joys of the Virgin and

1421-542: The Virgin The Life of the Virgin , showing narrative scenes from the life of Mary , the mother of Jesus , is a common subject for pictorial cycles in Christian art , often complementing, or forming part of, a cycle on the Life of Christ . In both cases the number of scenes shown varies greatly with the space available. Works may be in any medium: frescoed church walls and series of old master prints have many of

1470-567: The Virgin was one of his most influential works, adapted into painting by a host of artists in Germany and beyond. Schongauer apparently planned a large series, but only four scenes were produced (ca 1470–75). Israhel van Meckenem 's series of 12 scenes (ca 1490–1500) and Francesco Rosselli 's series, which followed the subjects of the Mysteries of the Rosary , were the most important other 15th century examples. Dürer largely eclipsed these at

1519-594: The Virgin Mary and the birth of Jesus agree with the canonical Christian gospels, to the Diatessaron (a second century gospel harmony), and to various apocryphan infancy gospels including the Gospel of James, which the Quran's mention of Mary fed by angels, the choice of her guardian through the casting of lots, and her occupation making a curtain for the Temple immediately before the Annunciation. Life of

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1568-480: The beginning of the 16th century with his cycle of 19 woodcuts on the Life of the Virgin (c. 1501-11) essentially following Schongauer's composition in his secene of the Death . With the decline of the illuminated manuscript and the advent of larger paintings and the single-subject altarpiece, cycles became less important in art, except in print form, but painted cycles by no means died out. A cycle of 16 fairly large paintings by Luca Giordano of about 1688 hung in

1617-627: The celebration of Mary's triumph. On May 28, 1906, Pope Saint Pius X introduced the indulgence of 300 days, that can be obtained once a day, for each invocation of "Saint Joachim, spouse of Saint Anne and father of the Blessed Virgin". The feast was then celebrated as a Double of the Second Class , a rank that was changed in 1960 to that of Second Class Feast . In the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar, it

1666-417: The child to God and vows that she shall be raised in the Temple. Joachim and Anna name the child Mary, and when she is three years old, they send her to the Temple , where she is fed each day by an angel. When Mary approaches her 12th year, the priests decide that she can no longer stay in the Temple lest her menstrual blood render it unclean, and God finds a widower, Joseph, to act as her guardian: Joseph

1715-656: The childhood of Christ, often ends the cycle. Important examples whose scenes are listed in the table below, include those in the Tornabuoni Chapel by Domenico Ghirlandaio and his workshop between 1485 and 1490, the Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto, completed about 1305, and the Maestà by Duccio completed in 1308. The important and extended Late Byzantine mosaic cycle of the Chora Church (early 14th century; see Gallery) shows some differences between East and West –

1764-467: The complementary cycle of the Life of St John the Baptist on the walls. A Life of Christ has many more scenes that overlap with the Life of Mary, as the Scrovegni Chapel demonstrates. Albrecht Dürer produced a highly popular and influential series of 19 scenes in woodcut . The total number of scenes was potentially very large up to the early Gothic period; Jacqueline Lafontaine-Dosogne ,

1813-463: The fullest cycles, but panel painting , stained glass , illuminated manuscripts , tapestries , stone sculptures and ivory carvings have many examples. The Life of the Virgin sometimes merges into a cycle of the Life of Christ, sometimes includes scenes from the Passion of Christ , but often jumps from the childhood of Christ to the Death of the Virgin. The Finding in the Temple , the last episode in

1862-468: The infant would never walk on the earth (her bedroom is made a "sanctuary" where she is attended by "undefiled daughters of the Hebrews"), her blessing "with the ultimate blessing" by the priests on her first birthday with the declaration that because of her God will bring redemption to Israel, and the angels who bring her food in the Temple, where she is attended by the priests and engages herself in weaving

1911-499: The midwife Salome, suggest strongly that it was attempting to deny the arguments of docetists , Christians who held that Jesus was entirely supernatural. It also draws heavily on the Septuagint for historical analogies, turns of phrase, and details of Jewish life. Ronald Hock and Mary F. Foskett have drawn attention to the influence of Greco-Roman literature on its themes of virginity and purity. Scholars generally accept that

1960-420: The moment of her conception. Her parents, the wealthy Joachim and his wife Anna (or Anne), are distressed that they have no children, and Joachim goes into the wilderness to pray, leaving Anna to lament her childless state. God hears Anna's prayer, angels announce the coming child, and in the seventh month of Anna's pregnancy (underlining the exceptional nature of Mary's future life), she is born. Anna dedicates

2009-455: The priests will assume that he is the guilty party. They do, but the chastity of both is proven through the " test of bitter waters ". The Roman census forces the holy couple to travel to Bethlehem, but Mary's time comes before they can reach the village. Joseph settles Mary in a cave, where she is guarded by his sons, while he goes in search of a midwife, and for an apocalyptic moment as he searches all creation stands still. He returns with

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2058-520: The story of Mary's parents, Saint Anne and Joachim , before her birth. The influence of these stories never disappeared entirely, partly because the canonical Gospels give few details of Mary's life before and after the years around the birth of Jesus. In the West the Pseudo-Matthew was the dominant apocryphal source; in the East, slightly different versions, all equally deriving from the Protoevangelium of James , were preferred. Cycles of

2107-415: The temple curtain. The ordeal of the bitter water serves to defend Jesus against accusation of illegitimacy levied in the second century by pagan and Jewish opponents of Christianity. Christian sensitivity to these charges made them eager to defend both the virgin birth of Jesus and the immaculate conception of Mary (i.e., her freedom from sin at the moment of her conception). The Quranic stories of

2156-399: The two examples described by Robert Calkins, it will be noticed that the much longer cycle in the "Hours of Catherine of Cleves" only overlaps with the standard scheme for three scenes. Ghirlandajo has large rectangular spaces to fill, and avoids scenes with only a few participants (and with no opportunity for showy costumes), except for the Annunciation. Christ taking leave of his Mother was

2205-488: The work antedated the main gospels of the New Testament ( proto- for first, evangelion for gospel). Emile de Stryker published the standard modern critical edition in 1961, and in 1995 Ronald Hock published an English translation based on de Stryker. The narrative is made up of three distinct sections with only slight ties to each other: Mary is presented as an extraordinary child destined for great things from

2254-563: Was a rich and pious man, who regularly gave to the poor. However, Charles Souvay, writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia , says that the idea that Joachim possessed large herds and flocks is doubtful. At the temple, Joachim's sacrifice was rejected, as the couple's childlessness was interpreted as a sign of divine displeasure. Joachim consequently withdrew to the desert, where he fasted and did penance for 40 days. Angels then appeared to both Joachim and Anne to promise them

2303-649: Was added to the General Roman Calendar in 1584, for celebration on 20 March, the day after the feast day of Saint Joseph . In 1738, it was transferred to the Sunday within the Octave of the Assumption of Mary . As part of his effort to allow the liturgy of Sundays to be celebrated, Pope Pius X (term 1903–1914) transferred it to 16 August, the day after the Assumption, so Joachim may be remembered in

2352-605: Was joined to that of Anne, for celebration on 26 July. The Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches commemorate Joachim on 9 September, the Synaxis of Joachim and Anne, the day after the Nativity of Mary . Joachim is remembered (with Anne) in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on 26 July . Joachim is named as the patron saint of fathers, grandfathers, grandparents, married couples, cabinet makers, and linen traders. In medieval art, he often wears

2401-504: Was the first to give the name Anne to the mother of Mary, taking it probably from Hannah , the mother of the prophet Samuel , and Mary, like Samuel, is taken to spend her childhood in the temple. Some manuscripts say of Anne's pregnancy that it was the result of normal intercourse with her husband, but current scholars prefer the oldest texts, which say that Mary was conceived in Joachim's absence through divine intervention; nevertheless,

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