From time immemorial the Greeks have celebrated the feast of Saint Joachim on the day following our Lady’s birthday. The Maronites kept it on the day after the Presentation in November, and the Armenians on the Tuesday after the Octave of the Assumption of the Mother of God. The Latins at first did not keep his feast. Later on it was admitted and celebrated sometimes on the day after the Octave of the Nativity, September 16th, sometimes on the day following the Conception of the Blessed Virgin, December 9th. Thus both East and West agreed in associating Saint Joachim with his illustrious daughter when they wished to do him honour.
About the year 1510 Julius II placed the feast of the grandfather of the Messiah on the Roman Calendar with the rank of double major, and remembering that family in which the ties of nature and of grace were in such perfect harmony, he fixed the solemnity on the 20th March, the day after that of his son-in-law, Saint Joseph. The life of the glorious patriarch resembled those of the first fathers of the Hebrew people, and it seemed as though he were destined to imitate their wanderings also by continually changing his place on the sacred cycle. Hardly fifty years alter the Pontificate of Julius II the critical spirit of the day cast doubts on the history of Saint Joachim, and his name was erased from the Roman breviary. Gregory XV, however, re-established his feast in 1622 as a double, and the Church has since continued to celebrate it. Devotion to our Lady’s father continuing to increase very much, the Holy See was petitioned to make his feast a holiday of obligation, as it had already made that of his spouse, St. Anne. In order to satisfy the devotion of the people without increasing the number of days of obligation, Clement XII in 1738 transferred the feast of Saint Joachim to the Sunday after the Assumption of his daughter, the Blessed Virgin, and restored it to the rank of double major.
On the First of August 1879 the Sovereign Pontiff Leo XIII, who received the name of Joachim in baptism, raised both the feast of his glorious patron and that of Saint Anne to the rank of doubles of the second class. The following is an extract from the decree Urbi et Orbi, announcing this final decision with regard to the said feasts: “Ecclesiasticus teaches us that we ought to praise our fathers in their generation. What great honour and veneration ought we then to render to Saint Joachim and Saint Anne who begot the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, and are on that account more glorious than all others.” “By your fruits are you known,” says Saint John Damascene, “you have given birth to a daughter who is greater than the Angels and has become their Queen.” Now since, through the divine mercy, in our unhappy times the honour and worship paid to the Blessed Virgin is increasing in proportion to the increasing needs of the Christian people, it is only right that the new glory which surrounds their blessed daughter should redound on her happy parents. May this increase of devotion towards them cause the Church to experience still more their powerful protection.Epistle – Ecclesiasticus xxxi. 8–11
Blessed is the rich man that is found without blemish, and that has not gone after gold, nor put his trust in money, nor in treasures. Who is he, and we will praise him? For he has done wonderful things in his life. Who has been tried thereby, and made perfect, he will have glory everlasting: he that could have transgressed, and has not transgressed, and could do evil things, and has not done them: therefore are his goods established in the Lord, and all the church of the saints will declare his alms.Thanks be to God.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
Joachim’s wealth, like that of the first patriarchs, consisted chiefly in flocks and herds. The holy use he made of it drew down God’s blessing on it. But the greatest of all his desires Heaven seemed to refuse him. His holy spouse Anne was barren. Among all the daughters of Israel expecting the Messiah, there was no hope for her. One day the victims Joachim presented in the Temple were conemptuously rejected. Those were not the gifts the Lord of the Temple desired of him. Later on, instead of lambs from his pastures, he was to present the Mother of the Lamb of God, and his offering would not be rejected.
This day, however, he was filled with sorrow and fled away without returning to his wife. He hastened to the mountains where his flocks were at pasture and living in a tent, he fasted continually, for he said: “I will take no food till the Lord my God look mercifully upon me. Prayer will be my nourishment.” Meanwhile Anne was mourning her widowhood and her barrenness. She prayed in her garden as Joachim was praying on the mountain. Their prayers ascended at the same time to the Most High, and He granted them their request. An Angel of the Lord appeared to each of them and bade them meet at the Golden Gate, and soon Anne could say: “Now I know that the Lord has greatly blessed me. For I was a widow and I am one no longer, and I was barren, and lo! I have conceived!”Gospel – Matthew i. 1–16
The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the Son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac; and Isaac begot Jacob; and Jacob begot Judas and his brethren; and Judas begot Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begot Esron; and Esron begot Aram; and Aram begot Aminadab; and Aminadab begot Naasson; and Naasson begot Salmon; and Salmon begot Booz of Rahab; and Booz begot Obed of Ruth; and Obed begot Jesse; and Jesse begot David the king. And David the king begot Solomon, of her who had been the wife of Unas; and Solomon begot Roboam; and Roboam begot Abia; and Abia begot Asa; and Asa begot Josaphat; and Josaphat begot Joram; and Joram begot Ozias; and Ozias begot Joatham; and Joatham begot Achaz; and Achaz begot Ezechias; and Ezschias begot Manasses; and Manasses begot Amon; and Amon begot Josias; and Josias begot Jechonias and his brethren in the transmigration of Babylon. And, after the transmigration of Babylon, Jechonias begot Salathiel; and Salathiel begot Zorobabel; and Zorobabel begot Abiud; and Abiud begot Eliacim; and Eliacim begot Azor; and Azor begot Sadoc; and Sadoc begot Achim: and Achim begot Eliud; and Eliud begot Eleazar; and Eleazar begot Mathan; and Mathan begot Jacob; and Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus; who is called Christ.Praise be to you, O Christ.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
“Rejoice, O Joachim, for of your daughter a Son is born to us,” exclaims Saint John Damascene. It is in this spirit the Church reads to us today the list of the royal ancestors of our Saviour. Joseph, the descendant of these illustrious princes, inherited their rights and passed them on to Jesus, who was his Son according to the Jewish law, though according to nature he was of the line of his Virgin Mother alone. Saint Luke, Mary’s Evangelist, has preserved the names of the direct ancestors of the Mother of the Man-God, springing from David in the person of Nathan, Solomon’s brother. Joseph, the son of Jacob according to Saint Matthew, appears in Saint Luke as son of Heli. The reason is, that by espousing Mary, the only daughter of Heli or Heliachim, that is Joachim, he became legally his son and heir. This is the now generally received explanation of the two genealogies of Christ the Son of David. It is not surprising that Rome, the queen city who has become the Bride of the Son of man in the place of the repudiated Sion, prefers to use in her Liturgy the genealogy which by its long line of royal ancestors emphasises the kingship of the Spouse over Jerusalem. The name of Joachim, which signifies “the preparation of the Lord,” is thus rendered more majestic, without losing aught of its mystical meaning. He is himself crowned with wonderful glory. Jesus, his Grandson, gives him to share in His own authority over every creature.
Father of Mary, we thank you. All creation owes you a debt of gratitude, since the Creator was pleased that you should give Him the Mother He had chosen for Himself. Husband of holy Anne, you show us what would have been in Paradise. You seem to have been reinstated in primeval innocence, in order to give birth to the Immaculate Virgin: sanctify Christian life, and elevate the standard of morals. You are the Grandfather of Jesus: let your paternal love embrace all Christians who are His brethren. Holy Church honours you more than ever in these days of trial. She knows how powerful you are with the Eternal and Almighty Father, who made you instrumental, through your blessed daughter, in the temporal Generation of His Eternal Son.Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Rome, St. Titus, deacon, who, when the city was taken by the Goths, was put to death by a barbarous tribune while distributing money to the poor.
At Nicaea in Bithynia, St. Diomedes, physician, who underwent martyrdom for the faith of Christ by being beheaded during the persecution of Diocletian.
Also thirty-three holy martyrs.
At Ferentino in Campania, St. Ambrose, centurion. In the persecution of Diocletian, he was subjected to different kinds of tortures, and finally passing through fire without injury, was cast into the water, and thus reached the place of eternal rest.
At Milan, the demise of St. Simplician, bishop, renowned by the testimony given of him by St. Ambrose and St. Augustine.
At Auxerre, St. Eleutherius, bishop.
At Nicomedia, St. Arsacius, confessor. Under the persecutor Licinius he left the military service, and leading a solitary life, became so famous for working miracles that we read of his expelling the demons and killing a huge dragon by his prayers. Finally he foretold the destruction of the city and gave up his soul to God in prayer.
Near Montpelier in France, the demise of blessed Roch, confessor, who by the sign of the cross, delivered many cities of Italy from an epidemic. His body was afterwards transferred to Venice, and deposited with the greatest honours in the church dedicated under his invocation.
At Rome, St. Serena, who had been the wife of the emperor Diocletian.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
