Stories retelling the birth of the Virgin Mary reveal that the Church was more forgiving of infertility than the general ...

On her mother ... Mary were foreshadowed in the beautiful verses of Prov­erbs describing a holy wife. Anne could have married almost any suitor, but Emmer­ich says that she chose Joachim ...

Pope Sixtus V later reestablished the feast in 1585, and it is still celebrated today, commemorating the faith of her parents, Joachim and Anne, and the purity of Mary.

Sts. Anne and Joachim, whose feast day is July 26, are known as the grandparents of Jesus and the parents of Mary. They, too, struggled with childlessness for decades, according to Christian legend.