Joachim, Saint

JOACHIM, Saint. - According to a tradition attested as early as the 11th century by the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James, he is the father of the Most Holy Virgin. The name is unknown to the canonical New Testament sources, but the tradition probably reflects some reliable source.

According to the Protoevangelium, J. was a very rich man and of the tribe of David; one day, having gone to make his offerings at the Temple, he was driven away by the high priest because he had no children. Afflicted, he withdrew into the desert, until, through an angel who had also appeared to his wife Anna, he received the assurance that his desire for fatherhood had not been granted. He returned home indeed, and had a little girl whom he called Mary.

In the East the cult of J. developed very early. In the Constantinopolitan Synaxarion he is commemorated together with his wife Anna, on 9 September, very probably in connection with the feast of the preceding day which celebrates the Nativity of Mary. In the 5th century the empress Eudocia had a basilica built near the pool of Bethsaida in Jerusalem, on the site where tradition pointed out the house of J. and where the Most Holy Virgin was said to have been born. The church was completely rebuilt by the Crusaders in the 12th century and dedicated to St. Anne. In the West the cult of J. was spread by the Franciscans; the first liturgical institution of the feast, however, goes back to Pope Julius II (1503-13), who fixed it on 20 March. After various vicissitudes, it was definitively fixed by Pius X on 16 August.