Happy feast of Sts. Anne and Joachim! And a giveaway for you!

sanctanomina Sancta Nomina community, ,

Today is the feast of the wonderful St. Anne, patroness of Sancta Nomina, and her husband St. Joachim — grandparents of Jesus! As I’ve noted before, not only do they have amazing names themselves, but they named Mother Mary. Thatโ€™s some serious business for a Catholic name blog!

Two St. Anne tidbits: I read in an obituary recently that the deceased was “Born Anne MiddleName LastName on July 26, 1936, the Feast Day of St. Anne, her mother, being extremely religious, named her after the Saint,” though she went by her middle name her whole life. You know I loved reading that! (May she rest in peace.) And my mom sent me this funny piece today written by a friend of hers that has to do with a St. Anne pilgrimage he went on with his family when he was a little boy. Hilarious! (Maybe my boys will write about their St. Anne pilgrimages when they grow up!)

In anticipation of today’s feast, I prayed a St. Anne Novena for the past nine days, finishing last night, which I offered for all of you and your intentions. And I have a giveaway for you! ๐ŸŽ‰๐ŸŽ‰๐ŸŽ‰

I know many of you follow the so-talented Rebecca Gรณrzyล„ska on Instagram (@delphinaroseart) — her artwork is absolutely stunning, and I’ve learned so much about her process and techniques through her posts. And she has a book coming out! She illustrated the book Marian Consecration for Families With Young Children by Colleen Pressprich, available now for preorder, and each illustration is simply perfection.

How excited was I to discover that Rebecca painted this folk art style print of St. Anne and the child Mary as the Immaculate Conception?! I knew immediately that this would be the perfect item for the giveaway I wanted to do for all of you, in honor of the feast of our dear St. Anne!

I’m thrilled to be able to give away five (5) 5×7 prints! Here are the details:

  • Head on over to Rafflecopter to enter
  • The giveaway is live from now until midnight on Thursday, July 30
  • On Thursday I’ll have Rafflecopter randomly select five (5) winners, whom I’ll notify by email

That’s it! As always, please know how grateful I am to all of you for your presence in our lovely little community! Thanks to you all, thanks to Rebecca, and happy feast of St. Anne and St. Joachim! ๐Ÿ’•๐Ÿ’™๐Ÿ’•๐Ÿ’™๐Ÿ’•๐Ÿ’™๐Ÿ’•๐Ÿ’™

My book,ย Catholic Baby Names for Girls and Boys: Over 250 Ways to Honor Our Lady (Marian Press, 2018), is available to order fromย ShopMercy.orgย andย Amazonย โ€” perfect for expectant parents, name enthusiasts, and lovers of Our Lady!

68 thoughts on “Happy feast of Sts. Anne and Joachim! And a giveaway for you!”

  2. I’m so glad I checked your blog tonight, I missed St. Anne’s feast day on my calendar. And it’s my Magdalene’s middle name, back to back feast days! St Anne, pray for us!

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  3. Happy anniversary, Kate!
    I donโ€™t have a particular story, but my home parish and parochial school (that my parents started!) were named for her, so sheโ€™s always been a friend of the family. ๐Ÿ™‚

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  6. When we were expecting our first baby, we had the hardest time agreeing on a girl name. Every name I liked, Hubs would say โ€œI went to school with a girl who had that nameโ€ or โ€œI work with a lady who has that nameโ€ so I turned to my Catholic calendar to see what feast day was on or near our due date, July 23rd. Again, we couldnโ€™t agree on a name until I said, St. Ann. He immediately said, โ€œI like Anna.โ€ I said, โ€œI do, too!….but now we need a middle name.โ€ He said, โ€œletโ€™s use yours.โ€ So baby girl became Anna Catherine. She just turned 15 on the 17th of July.

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  7. Iโ€™ve always felt a special connection to St. Anne because my momโ€™s name is Mary Anne and my name is Anna Marie. My mom passed away June 19, 2019 after battling kidney cancer. My brother and his wife welcomed my parents first grand baby on June 19, 2020; a girl named Marianne Martha โค๏ธ The day life came full circle for us!

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  8. Happy Anniversary! I love reading your blog. Iโ€™ve learned more about St. Anne through your blog and through my MILโ€™s devotion. ๐Ÿ’• Weโ€™re expecting baby #2, a girl, and are planning on naming her Annalise Rose. We want to use St. Elizabeth Anne Seton since Annalise is a mix of Anne and Elizabeth. Maybe our sweet girl will find a closeness to St. Anne too!

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      • Thank you so much! We got confirmation in the name through St. Elizabeth Ann Setonโ€™s feast day being around the time we found out we were expecting and Rose for Our Lady of the Rosary a feast around my due date. This happened with our first daughter, named Eleanor Grace. St Helenโ€™s feast day was around the time we found out we were expecting and Our Lady of Grace was around the time of her due date. Craziness how that has worked both times! We hope to give all our daughters Marian names. ๐Ÿ’•Your Marian names book was tremendously helpful.

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  12. What a great way to honor this day! The newest arrival to our family is named AnnaSophia and we invoke the intercession of St. Anne for her as part of our litany at bedtime.

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  14. I first learnt about St Anne when I was training to be a teacher. Now I am a home educating mamma and I have rediscovered her. Turning to her for intercession for my son, for our homeschooling and for my parenting.

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  17. When my mom was about to give birth to my twin and me .our older sister was worried about mom since she heard stories of mothers dying after child birth. Dad told Joan to stay with our neighbor up stairs. When Joan expressed her worry to Mrs. Dimler she said we will pray to ST.Anne she is the patron Saint of mothers.
    Marion

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  21. Such a fun way to celebrate their feast day! I don’t have a St. Anne story but you are making me want to read even more about her! ๐Ÿ˜

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  22. I love Rebeccaโ€™s work and own several of her beautiful pieces. As a homemaking wife and mother, St. Anne has guided me in so many ways. Her gentle guidance has taught me that everything I do in the home can be for His glory โ€” even the smallest thing. People mostly donโ€™t notice all of the hard work we go through with homekeeping and that is how it should be โ€” it should be seamless. I think St. Anne follows me silently through my tasks on the most difficult days.

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  24. I am no experienced artist like Delphina, Iโ€™ve been following her for years now, sheโ€™s amazing. I too have a special connection to St. Anne as Iโ€™ve painted her before as a gift for a teacher at my daughters school. I feel like every saint Iโ€™ve painted I have special connection to โค๏ธ

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  26. My middle name is Anne also. I really wanted to be married on her first day, actually, but our church was already booked. There’s a beautiful statue of St. Anne in our church, which is named after her daughter. I often stop and say hello to her.

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  27. When looking for a name for my twin girls we were going through our favorite female saints. They were due mid August but I had a feeling they would be here sooner. When I saw St. Anneโ€™s feast day on the calendar I knew I had to name one of my girls Anne, (iโ€™m a homemaker, educator, and my oldest daughter does horseback riding). My girls were born on July 30th, we named them Annie Elizabeth and Siena Clare.

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  29. We named one of our daughters MaryAnn and I just love how she gets to be named after Mary AND her mother. You canโ€™t get a more holy set of intercessors or role models! Imagine to have been the woman who raised the Blessed Virgin?!

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  30. I love St. Anne. We just heard a fantastic homily on her this past Sunday on her feast day. She is the patron saint of a nearby diocese where we attend liturgy. I would love to one day honor her in a future child’s name! Thank you for this giveaway.

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