Joachim

Life

The life of Joachim is not recorded in the canonical Scriptures. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament contain genealogies of Jesus, but they do not give the names of Mary's parents. The story of Joachim originates in the Protoevangelium of James, a work of the New Testament Apocrypha (early Christian writings not included in the canon). The book is generally dated to the second century, and some place its composition around AD 170–180.

According to the Protoevangelium of James, Joachim was a wealthy and respected man descended from the house of David. When he went to offer gifts at the Temple in Jerusalem, the high priest rejected them because he had no children. Joachim then withdrew into the wilderness, where he fasted and prayed for forty days and nights, while his wife, Anne, also grieved over her childlessness. An angel then appeared to each of them separately and announced that they would have a child. Joachim returned to Jerusalem and met Anne again at the city gate. The daughter born to them was Mary. According to tradition, the couple, in fulfillment of their vow to dedicate the child to God, entrusted Mary to the Temple when she was three years old, and she was raised there. The details vary somewhat among traditions: some accounts say the couple lived in Nazareth, while others say they spent their old age in Jerusalem.

Veneration and Development of the Tradition

Joachim is not known for any ministry such as preaching or writing. He has been remembered in church tradition and in the liturgy (the prescribed forms of worship) as one of the parents of Mary. The Protoevangelium of James was widely read in the early church and was cited by several Church Fathers (the leading theologians of the early church).

• The Eastern Church has commemorated Joachim and Anne together since around the sixth century on September 9, the day after the Feast of the Nativity of Mary.
• In the Western Church, his name did not gain wide acceptance until the late Middle Ages, and his feast was not established until the sixteenth century; Korean Catholic media give the year as 1584. Joachim's feast was originally kept separately but has since been combined with that of his wife, Anne. Today the Catholic Church observes July 26 as the Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The story was also included in the Golden Legend, a medieval collection of saints' lives. In Italy, from the time of the painter Giotto onward, it became a frequent subject of painting. In art, Joachim is commonly depicted as an old man, either carrying a cage containing two doves (compare Luke 2:24) or holding the young Mary.

Influence on the Korean Church

In the Korean Catholic Church, Joachim is used as a baptismal name, and some parishes have Joachim and Anne as their patron saints. On the July 26 memorial, homilies sometimes present the couple as the grandparents of Jesus and encourage the faithful to care for the elderly.

Protestant churches do not commemorate Joachim with a feast day or in worship. In Korean Protestantism, Joachim is mentioned mainly in discussions of the Apocrypha or of Marian devotion (the honoring of Mary).

Assessment

The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church venerate Joachim as a saint. Although he is not named in the canon, they hold that the Protoevangelium of James preserves beliefs handed down from the early church. Some Anglican liturgical calendars are also reported to include a commemoration of Joachim and Anne.

Since the Reformation, Protestants have regarded the canonical Scriptures alone as the standard of faith. They therefore treat the story of Joachim as church tradition rather than as a matter of faith, and do not regard him as an object of veneration. Some have noted that the narrative of a childless couple who receive a child after prayer and dedicate the child to God resembles the story of Hannah and Samuel in 1 Samuel. The name Anne is also the same as the Hebrew name Hannah.