Saints Joachim and Anne

July 26th is a special day for many American Marists for on this day up until 1959, it was the day for the taking of the Marist habit for the postulants and the profession of first vows for the novices. Why this day? It was then the feast of St. Anne, patronness of the American province which began in 1911, having become independent for the North American Province, which included Canada and the United States. Canadians have a great devotion to St. Anne as evidenced by the magnificent church and place of pilgrimage at St. Anne de Beaupre. This devotion was carried to the States by our first Marists, most of whom were Canadian. Marist College, was first known as St. Anne's Hermitage when two estates along the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie, New York where purchased in the early 1900's. When the American province divided in 1958, the Poughkeepsie Province chose St. Anne as its patron. With the liturgical calendar revision in 1969, St. Anne and her husband, St. Joachim, whose names we know from tradition, not Scripture, were reunited.
To know and appreciate who we are, we need to know our history, our parents, included. We know much about Mary, who is a reflection of her parents, and thus the object of so much devotion and veneration. They who taught Mary so well, serve as models for today's families and reflect the teaching of Sirach, so needed today: "Children, pay heed to a father's right;/ do so that you may live./ For the Lord sets a father in honor over his children;/ a mother's authority he confirms over her sons./ He who honors his father atones for sins;/ he sotres up riches who reveres his mother./ He who honors his father is gladdened by children,/ and when he prays he is heard./ He who reveres his father will live a long life;/ he obeys the Lord who brings comfort to his mother./ (Sir 3: 1-6). It was on the model of the Holy Family that St. Marcellin built our Marist Family Spirit, and the basic principle for our educational philosophy and practice: "To teach young people, you need to love them first." We Marists owe much of St. Joachim and St. Anne.
Bro. Rene