St. Anna the Prophetess
Widow of the Temple, Witness of the Presentation
📖 Life of St. Anna the Prophetess
St. Anna the Prophetess is the widow of Luke 2:36–38. She is not St. Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin. Anna was the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher, "advanced in years," married seven years and then a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the Temple, worshipping with fasting and prayer night and day.
When Mary and Joseph brought the Child, Simeon took Him in his arms. Anna came up at that very hour, gave thanks to God, and spoke of the child to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. She is the first woman in the Gospel to preach Christ — not from a pulpit, from the Temple courts, to anyone who would listen.
Scripture gives no death-day. The Church has remembered her with the Presentation and, in the Roman Martyrology, on September 1. Eastern calendars often keep her on February 3 with Simeon.
A long widowhood in the Temple is not a failure to remarry. It is a vocation. The Gospel names her so that old women who pray are not invisible in the history of salvation.
🌟 Legacy of St. Anna the Prophetess
Not St. Anne of Nazareth
The names are cousins in English and identical in some languages. This page exists because a 301 to Mary's mother would erase the prophetess of Luke 2.
The First Woman to Announce Christ
Before the Magdalene at the tomb, Anna at the Presentation already told Jerusalem who the Child was. Evangelization can be an old widow talking in a courtyard.
Fasting and Prayer Night and Day
Luke's two verbs are her biography. The Church's contemplative life is already in the Temple before Pentecost.
What Her Life Teaches
You can be eighty-four, unseen by the powerful, and still be on time for the Messiah. Stay where you pray. He may be carried in.
📅 Feast Day
Commemoration of St. Anna the Prophetess
Liturgical Celebration
The Roman Martyrology commemorates Anna the Prophetess on September 1. Many Eastern churches keep her on February 3 with holy Simeon. She is distinct from St. Anne (July 26).
Traditions and Customs
The day is well used to pray for widows, for contemplatives, and for the elderly who keep watch in churches. Reading Luke 2:36–38 slowly is the devotion.
Prayer and Devotion
Pair her memory with the Blessed Virgin and with St. Anne, so that the two women named Anna are both honored and not confused.
🛡️ Patronage
Primary Patronages
- • Widows: eighty-four years of watching
- • Contemplatives: the Temple as a cloister
- • The elderly: on time for the Messiah
Special Intentions
- • Those who wait: redemption of Jerusalem
- • Women evangelists: she spoke of the Child
- • Presentation of the Lord: her hour in the Gospel
🙏 Prayers
Prayer to St. Anna the Prophetess
O St. Anna the Prophetess, you stayed in the Temple until the Child was brought in, and you spoke of Him to all who waited. You were not Mary's mother; you were the widow who knew the hour.
Obtain for us perseverance in prayer, a voice to announce Christ, and a holy old age. Amen.
Short Prayer
St. Anna the Prophetess, pray for us!
Related Saints
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