This is a busy month. We celebrate Independence Day (July 4), World Chocolate Day (July 7), Bastille Day (July 14), Amelia Earhart Day (July 24), International Day of Friendship (July 30), and others.  And, also, the Feast Day of St. Anne (July 26.)

We don’t know that much about St. Anne, but we know this: she was the only woman who gave birth to the Immaculate Conception.

Confused? Oh, don’t be. In case you don’t know what the Immaculate Conception is, here’s what it isn’t. It isn’t Christ being born without the benefit of sex. No, that’s what we call the Virgin Birth.

The Immaculate Conception is the conception of Mary, in the womb of her mother, Anne, in the regular way, but without the stain of Original Sin.  So she could be born pure.

How amazing. But that isn’t all. Anne is the grandmother of Jesus, and that means God in also her grandson. He still had to listen to her! She’s also the mother-in-law of St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus and Mary’s husband.

Anne was born in Bethlehem and married Joachim from Nazareth in Galilee. We don’t know this from the Bible, because Anne’s name is never mentioned. But she is talked about in the Gospel of St. James, which was written about 150 years after she was around. We know the name Anne comes from the Hebrew name Hannah, which means Grace. We imagine Joachim was a shepherd, a common profession in those days.

They were an older couple, and then an angel appeared to Anne and said she was chosen to have this very special little girl. She must have been thrilled, and a little nervous.

Since we know Mary knew how to sew, we imagine Anne was the one who taught her. And Anne likely took care of Jesus when he was a child, so Mary and Joseph could have a night out. She might have even witnessed his first miracles. And she probably scolded him when he didn't pay attention, or finish his dinner. And she passed down stories. Like all grandmas.

On Easter Sunday in the year 792, Charlemagne discovered the relics of Saint Anne with the help of a blind, deaf, mute boy. It’s a great story.

Fourteen years after Jesus was crucified, a band of Christians piled into a boat and, with no sails and no oars, drifted in the Mediterranean until their boat made shore in the south of France. They included St. Mary Magdalene, St. Martha, and St. Lazarus, and they had the body of St. Anne with them. Some stories also say the Virgin Mary was among the passengers, and that makes some sense. Those ladies wanted to stick together. When they landed, they buried St. Anne’s body in a cave, in the town of Apt, just north of Marseille.

Later, a church was built at the spot, but it fell into decay, and eventually nobody remembered that St. Anne was there.

Who could let a good piece of real estate just sit there? Centuries later, a new church was built, a magnificent church, and Charlemagne himself came to open it.

Imagine, the great emperor is standing around when a teenaged boy of about 14, deaf, blind, unable to speak from birth, walks up to the new altar, and strikes a stick on the first step.

Over and over again, this boy smacked that step, until Charlemagne finally had some workers remove the steps to see what was under there. Guess what? There was a passage under the church, and the boy walked into it. Everybody followed.

At the end of a corridor, behind a wall, through another long, dark passageway, they found a crypt. Anne’s crypt.

Later, poor Anne’s body was divided and her relics were sent to several churches and Cathedrals. At the end of time, she’ll come back together. So if you see a finger bone traveling through the air, you can guess what’s happening!

     St. Anne is a powerful saint. She is Mary’s mother.  She’s the grandmother of Jesus, which means she has the ear of God, in case you want to pray to her.

     Anne is the patron saint of single women and widows, and there’s a prayer you can say, just in case you’re looking for a date.

     Not necessarily marriage, but maybe just a date for the holidays, or a cup of coffee at the new café.

Here’s the prayer:

“St. Anne, St. Anne, send me a man as fast as you can!”