See Cuper the Bollandist, t. 6, Julij, p. 233.
The Hebrew word Anne signifies gracious. St. Joachim and St. Anne,
the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, are justly honored in the
Church, and their virtue is highly extolled by St. John Damascen.
The emperor Justinian I. built a church at Constantinople in honor
of St. Anne, about the year 550.[292] Codinus mentions another built
by Justinian II. in 705. Her body was brought from Palestine to
Constantinople in 710, whence some portions of her relics have been
dispersed in the West. F. Cuper the Bollandist has collected a great
number of miracles wrought through her intercession.[293]
God has been pleased by sensible effects to testify how much he
is honored by the devotion of the faithful to this saint, who was
the great model of virtue to all engaged in the married state, and
charged with the education of children. It was a sublime dignity and
a great honor for this saint to give to a lost world the advocate
of mercy, and to be parent of the mother of God. But it was a far
greater happiness to be, under God, the greatest instrument of her
virtue, and to be spiritually her mother by a holy education in
perfect innocence and sanctity. St. Anne, being herself a vessel of
grace, not by name only, but by the possession of that rich treasure,
was chosen by God to form his most beloved spouse to perfect virtue;
and her pious care of this illustrious daughter was the greatest
means of her own sanctification and her glory in the church of God to
the end of ages. It is a lesson to all parents whose principal duty
is the holy education of their children. By this they glorify their
Creator, perpetuate his honor on earth to future ages, and sanctify
their own souls. St. Paul says, that it is by the education of their
children that parents are to be saved.[294] Nor will he allow any
one who has had children, ever to be admitted to serve the altar,
whose sons do not, by their holy conduct, give proofs of a virtuous
education. Nevertheless, we see parents solicitous about the corporal
qualifications of their children, and earnest to procure them an
establishment in the world; yet supinely careless in purchasing them
virtue, in which alone their true happiness consists. This reflection
drew tears from Crates, a heathen philosopher, who desired to mount
on the highest place in his city and cry out, with all his strength:
“Citizens, what is it you think of? You employ all your time in
heaping up riches to leave to your children; yet take no care to
cultivate their souls with virtue, as if an estate were more precious
than themselves.”[295]