ON ST. ANNA THE PROPHETESS, AT JERUSALEM,
AT JERUSALEM,
At the beginning of the first century.
HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
Anna the prophetess, at Jerusalem. (S.)
Written by J. L.
§ I. Her cult; eulogies; family; marriage; the Widow's continence and piety.
[ ] The Greeks and the other peoples of the East announce St. Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, who is surnamed the Evangelical and the Prophetess, on a different day indeed from the Latins, The Saint's cult from the Greek Calendars yet not all on the same day. In the great Greek Menæa of the Venetian edition the third of February is consecrated to her memory, and it is added that she is honored at Constantinople in the Church of St. James the brother of the Lord: of which Du Cange may be consulted, book 4 of Christian Constantinople, §5, num. 9. The Saint's eulogy which is then subjoined I do not here transcribe, since it is taken from St. Luke's Gospel, whose words will presently be given. In the same Menæa on the XXVIII of August an announcement of the Saint is also made, which these little verses follow:
Οὐ γῆς ἀπῇρεν ἡ Φανουὴλ θυγάτηρ, Ἕως ἐπ᾽ αὐτῆς εἴδε τὸν Θεὸν βρέφος.
The daughter of Phanuel left not the earth before she saw upon it God born an infant.
On the same day, the XXVIII of August, the holy Widow is reported by the Sirletian Menology; but the Synaxary of the emperor Basil, the Syriac and Chaldee Calendar printed at Rome in the year 1624, the Slavo-Russian Menology of Sparwenfeld, and other ecclesiastical Calendars of the Orientals record St. Anna together with St. Simeon the old man on the III of February.
[2] In the sacred Calendars of the Latin Church the first of September is destined for her cult. and from the Latin ones: By Ado she was first assigned on this day among the Festivities of the Apostles, then he inserted her in his Martyrology; which Usuard also did, using these words: The birthday of the most blessed Anna the prophetess, whose sanctity the Evangelical discourse sets forth. The latter words are taken from the said Festivities. Besides other moderns, Baronius, the author of the Roman Martyrology which the Church now uses, adopted the same: At Jerusalem, he says, of blessed Anna the prophetess, whose sanctity, etc. In the Calendar of the proper feasts of the church of Jerusalem, which is extant in Wadding's Annals of the Friars Minor at the year 1342, num. 48, the holy Prophetess is marked on 1 September, and a semi-double rite is prescribed under which the Office of her is to be recited and Mass celebrated. Carlo Bartolomeo Piazza in his Sacred Hemerology of Christian and Gentile Rome at 1 September writes that her relics are kept in the church of St. Paul della Regola, but of what sort they are he does not express.
[3] The Church judged St. Anna worthy of the cult of the faithful on account of the signal and shining testimony of her sanctity she is praised by the Evangelist and by St. Ambrose: which the Gospel of Luke gives in chapter 2, verse 36 and following: And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was far advanced in years and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow until fourscore and four years: who departed not from the temple, by fastings and prayers serving night and day. Now she at the same hour coming in confessed to the Lord: and spoke of him to all that looked for the redemption of Israel. The virtues for which the Evangelist praises her St. Ambrose sets forth more explicitly in the book On Widows, chapter 4: Anna teaches, he says, what widows ought to be; who, bereft by the untimely death of her husband, yet found the glory of a ripe praise, being no less intent on the office of religion than on the zeal of chastity. A widow, he says (the cited St. Luke), of fourscore and four years; a widow who departed not from the temple; a widow who by fastings and prayers served day and night. Thou seest what sort of widow is proclaimed: the wife of one husband, approved also by the advance of her age, living to religion even with a body now spent; whose lodging was in the temple, whose converse was in prayer, whose life was in fasting. Who through the times of days and nights, with unwearied obedience of devotion, though she acknowledged the old age of her body, yet knew no old age of piety. So is a widow trained from her youth, so is she proclaimed a veteran in old age: who chose widowhood not by the occasion of the time, not by weakness
of body, but by the greatness of her virtue. For when he (the Evangelist) says that she had been seven years with her husband from her virginity, he proclaims that the supports of old age were begun from the pursuits of youth. With almost like eulogies, drawn from St. Luke, she is adorned by St. Jerome in the Paris edition, letter 47 (otherwise 10) to Furia; by St. Fulgentius in letter 2 to Proba, chapter 15; by St. Amphilochius in his sermon On the Meeting of the Lord; by Bl. Peter Damian, book 8, letter 14; and by other holy Fathers, whose words will be given below more opportunely. Now let us examine some historical questions to which the Evangelist's words, understood variously by various men, have given matter.
[4] her nobility cannot be deduced from the Scriptures: Angelus del Pas of the Order of Friars Minor, in his Commentaries on Luke, collected and revised by L. Wadding and A. Hickey, book 3, chapter 36, from the fact that St. Anna is called by the Evangelist the daughter of Phanuel, deduces that he, her father, was a most noble man who held the princedom among his fellow tribesmen of the tribe of Aser, as he says at the beginning of the chapter; or, as he has about the middle, that he was, for his probity and the excellence of his acts, easily the first among the men of his tribe. This, he says, the Evangelist indicates when he introduces him as most well known from his deeds and name, after the manner of the Scriptures; which weave such men into the narrative as we too, when we speak among acquaintances about eminent men, are wont to say that this man is the son of John, of Peter, or of another who, whether for riches or command or integrity of life, is held singular and first among others. Although it be perhaps true that Phanuel excelled among his own either in nobility of virtue or of blood, yet the praised author does not persuade the reader of it by a probable reason. St. Peter in John chapter 21 is called by Christ Simon son of John. Who would say that it is there signified that his father John was noble? I do not doubt that Christ added the father's name to distinguish Simon, the prince of the Apostles, from another Apostle of the same name, namely Simon the Chananean. The same St. Gregory of Nyssa judges of St. Anna in his sermon On the Meeting of the Lord: But as far as we can attain, we say that there were at that time others also of the same name as this Saint, and devoted with her to sacred studies, persisting in fastings and prayers. That therefore her person might easily be distinguished, he mentioned her father and added the property of her tribe. It is not necessary that I should bring forward more examples from the Scriptures. The learned reader cannot doubt that sufficient ones are at hand for me, or can easily be. Our venerable Father Peter Canisius in book 4 On Mary the Virgin Mother of God, chapter 12, about the middle, and some others attribute to the Saint nobility of family as well; but on what foundation they rely I know not: the Evangelist certainly gives none to that opinion.
[5] Of her life before she was a widow nothing occurs in the sacred Letters, she more probably married in the completed twelfth year of her age: except that of Luke in verse 36: And she had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. On which place our Maldonatus says: But that the Evangelist says FROM HER VIRGINITY I so interpret as if he said, from her first puberty, from her first virginity, that is, from that time in which she began to be a virgin… For then a woman properly begins to be called a virgin when she begins to be marriageable: for she is not properly a virgin who is not capable of corruption. The Evangelist therefore wished to signify that Anna was given in marriage from her first puberty, that is, from about her twelfth year… I know that others expound that she lived with her husband from her virginity, that is, from the time in which she married, from which she ceased to be a virgin; but I by no means approve it. If, according to Maldonatus' interpretation, which I prefer to every other, St. Anna married in the twelfth year of her age, completed namely (for puberty in women is not held to begin earlier), she was only in her twentieth year of life when she lost her husband, with whom she had lived only seven years. Who or of what sort he was, and whether the Saint had children by him, the sacred Pages do not record.
[6] Surviving her husband in the flower of her age, she passed as a widow whatever time of life was left her. The Widow's chastity and holiness of life. St. Ambrose, cited at num. 3, says: She preserved her widowhood not by the occasion of the time, not by weakness of body, but by the greatness of her virtue. Hear St. Augustine too in the book On the Good of Widowhood, chapter 13: Further, the merit of that Anna is chiefly commended in this, that, having so soon buried her husband, through her long age she long strove with the flesh and conquered. For thus it is written: And there was one Anna, a prophetess, etc. To the sacred text he subjoins: Thou seest how the holy Widow is proclaimed not only because she was the wife of one husband, but also because she lived few years with her husband from her virginity, and carried the office of widowed continence down to so great an old age with so great a service of piety. What that service was which she rendered to God down to extreme old age, and by whose protection she preserved her continence, St. Luke teaches briefly in verse 37. Receive again the words: And she was a widow until fourscore and four years, who departed not from the temple, by fastings and prayers serving night and day.
§ II. Did the Saint dwell in the temple? Was she famous for the gift of prophecy before the day of the Purification of the Mother of God? She recognizes Jesus in the temple and announces Him to others; in what year of her age, is uncertain.
[ ] The Saint's dwelling in the temple of Jerusalem plainly uncertain: Various grave authors think that by that saying of the Evangelist, And she departed not from the temple, it is signified that the holy Widow dwelt in the temple of Jerusalem. Our venerable Father Peter Canisius in book 1 On Mary the Virgin Mother of God, chapter 12, a little before the middle, writes thus: Add that in the old synagogue of the Jews it was received and solemn that certain virgins and widows were not given in marriage, but were enclosed in certain places of the temple: where they might conveniently give their labor to prayers and fastings and other offices of piety, and might guard their continence with less trouble. Into the catalogue and order of these widows, as the learned judge, Anna the daughter of Phanuel was enrolled, who, by Luke's testimony, had fixed her seat in the temple, so that she thought she must not depart thence, being meanwhile so religious in life and manners that, free for fastings and prayers and neglecting human things, she was occupied night and day in divine worship. A little below he cites Tostatus as favoring him in his Commentary on chapter 38 of Exodus. The same opinion pleased Baronius in the Annals at the first year of Christ, num. 41; our Francisco Suarez, volume 2 on the 3rd part of St. Thomas, disputation 7, section 1; Torniellus at the year of the world 4032, num. 16; Calmet, and others. That women of old truly dwelt in the temple, the praised Father Canisius solidly proves by various examples and testimonies, and Baronius in the Apparatus to the Ecclesiastical Annals, num. 49 and following. Of the place of the temple destined for the dwelling of women, besides Baronius just cited, the curious reader may also consult Torniellus at the year 4032, num. 14, and others. From the said authors dissent Lyranus, Jansenius of Ghent, Toletus, Estius, Maldonatus, and many other interpreters. To these that saying of St. Luke, Who departed not from the temple, does not seem to signify that the Saint had a fixed dwelling in the temple. They say that the Evangelist means nothing else than that she was frequent in the temple and remained long in it, as some devout women do today. Since I can neither devise nor find among the defenders of either party any reason which seems to me sufficient to establish that the one opinion, or rather conjecture, is more likely than the other, I leave the question undecided.
[8] St. Cyril of Jerusalem does not favor those who make the holy Widow a nun. Lezana in his Annals at the year of the world 4040, num. 4, and some others, try to gain credence not only that the holy Widow lived in the temple of Jerusalem, but also that she lived there bound by some vow of chastity and professing a certain fixed rule of religious life. They think St. Cyril of Jerusalem favors them, Catechesis 10; where, as they say, she is called a most religious nun. Lezana also cites Baronius at the first year of Christ, num. 41; where I read this: But how she is said never to have departed from the temple, so that St. Cyril of Jerusalem deservedly calls her A MOST RELIGIOUS NUN, consult what has been said above, etc. I have inspected the Greek source, and in the holy Father in the place cited I have found these words: Καὶ Ἄννα προφῆτις, ἐγκρατὴς εὐλαβεστάτη, καὶ ἀσκήτρια μαρτυρεῖ περὶ αὐτοῦ. Antoine Augustin Touttée of the Benedictine Order, who published St. Cyril at Paris in the year 1720 in Greek and Latin, renders these thus: And Anna the prophetess, a most religious continent woman (or widow), and one leading an ascetic life, bears witness of him. But I have found that an older Latin translator put for ἀσκήτρια a nun. I should think that the most erudite Baronius, not having inspected the Greek text, followed in good faith this Latin version, which perhaps he had in hand. However it be, this is certain: that, as ἀσκεῖν means to exercise, so also ἀσκητὴς and ἀσκήτρια, derived from it, are said of any man or woman of any state whatsoever who exercises the mind by prayer or by the contemplation of divine things, or the body by voluntary afflictions. Therefore from the fact that the Saint was ἀσκήτρια it can in no way be inferred that she was a nun, such namely as some will have her to have been. Whoever desires more about the genuine signification of that Greek word, let him read our Serarius on chapter 16 of the book of Judith, little question 4, where he discourses at length on it to our purpose.
[9] Among the heavenly gifts with which God heaped the holy Widow for her continence, she was endowed by the Lord with a prophetic Spirit: her zeal of prayer, and the austerity of her life, was the gift of prophecy: For on this account, says Euthymius here, she was endowed also with prophetic grace, because she departed not from the temple, etc. Origen in Homily 17 on Luke says: And justly did the woman deserve to receive the spirit of prophesying, because by long chastity and long fastings she had ascended to this summit. The same St. Cyprian testifies in On the Lord's Prayer. These Fathers treat of the prophetic spirit by which she recognized the Saviour of the world, present to her in human flesh, in the temple, and announced Him to others. But St. Augustine in the book On the Good of Widowhood says that it must also be believed that, divinely enlightened, she foreknew the Messiah's coming into this world: for he speaks thus: Anna therefore, widowed of one husband, was happier than this twice-married woman (Ruth), because she deserved also to be a prophetess of Christ; who, it is to be believed — even if she had no children, which indeed Scripture by keeping silence has left uncertain — foresaw by that spirit that Christ was shortly to be born of a virgin
to come, by which spirit she could also recognize the little child. Whence deservedly, even without children — if however she had none — she refused a second marriage, because she knew that it was now the time in which Christ was better served not by the office of childbearing but by the zeal of continence, and not by fruitful wedded wombs but by chaste widowed manners. In the Menology of the emperor Basil at the III of February I read that to St. Anna praying in the temple an angel appeared, by whose oracle she was taught that she would not die before she had beheld the promised Messiah. But the authority of him who at Basil's command wrote that Menology is not so great as to make probable what beyond Scripture he asserts about Saints known in it. Although what I have just transcribed from St. Augustine is likewise beyond Scripture, yet such is the holy Doctor's authority in the Church that I would not dare to call it improbable.
[10] Not a few interpreters, expounding that saying of Luke, And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, etc., think that the Saint is called a prophetess only because she prophesied in the temple when she met the Lord. but whether also before the 40th day from Christ's nativity But not a few also affirm that the Evangelist here wished to indicate not only that she once prophesied, but also that she publicly held that name. They say that he joined to the Saint's first name the word Prophetess as a surname, which was given her on account of the frequent exercise of the prophetic gift. But the question returns: whether she was commonly surnamed Prophetess from the use of the prophetic spirit by which she recognized the Lord when He was offered in the temple, or from the prophecies which preceded that recognition. Many judge that this surname was given her on account of that saying of the Gospel in verse 38, And she spoke of him (of Christ, whom, divinely enlightened, she had known to be the promised Messiah) to all that looked for the redemption of Israel: for to manifest to others a hidden thing — not only future, but also present or past — known by divine light, is to prophesy. There are, however, a few who think that she was called Prophetess before the day of the Purification of the Virgin Mother of God. And they expound the context of the sacred narrative nearly thus: That the Evangelist might show that St. Anna's testimony about the newborn Christ was above every exception, he willed to set first those things which had won authority for her testimony: hence he first commended her from her great age, from the continence which she kept as a widow, from her assiduity in the temple, from the austerity of her life, and from the name of Prophetess, which was given her on account of the frequent and famous use of prophesying. Having so praised her, he at once subjoins in verse 38: And she — namely Anna, who was a prophetess, who departed not from the temple, etc. — at the same hour coming in confessed to the Lord.
[11] she was a prophetess in name and in fact? According to this explanation, which appears to me agreeable to the sacred narrative and probable, the holy Widow was a prophetess in name and in fact before the Presentation of the Lord in the temple. The words of St. Augustine cited in the preceding number favor it: Anna … deserved to be a prophetess of Christ; who, it is to be believed, … foresaw by that spirit that Christ was shortly to be born of a virgin, by which spirit she could also recognize the little child. If, taught by the Holy Spirit, she foreknew that Christ would shortly be born, doubtless she also foretold that the redemption of Israel and the other things which the prophets had prophesied of Him were shortly to be fulfilled; namely, that she might either arouse or confirm others' faith about His coming: for, by the Apostle's testimony, 1 Corinthians chapter 12 from verse 7: And to every one is given the manifestation of the Spirit unto profit — namely of his neighbor, which is its primary end; to one indeed by the Spirit is given the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, … to another prophecy, etc. But since, as is everywhere known, the word to prophesy in the Scriptures signifies not only to foretell future things but also many other things, nothing can be affirmed about the sense in which the Saint was by antonomasia called a prophetess before the 40th day from Christ's nativity. Moreover, the opinion which holds that she obtained that name before that time is probable; yet not so as that I should judge it to be preferred to the opinion which denies it.
[12] [Taught by the Holy Spirit, she knows the Infant Jesus to be the promised Messiah, and announces Him to others,] Whether therefore she was or was not a prophetess before she met the Lord in the temple, a great enough esteem and authority among the Jews had been won for her by the holiness of life joined to a venerable old age and by the exercises of the virtues for which she is praised in the Gospel. By the testimony of so great a Woman God also willed the nativity of Christ to be published abroad: Simeon had prophesied, says St. Ambrose here; the virgin Mary had prophesied; Elizabeth, joined in wedlock, had prophesied; a widow too had to prophesy, lest either a state of life or a sex should be wanting. And therefore Anna is brought in, such both in the wages of her widowhood and in her manners, that she is believed plainly to have been worthy to announce that the Redeemer of all had come. Of the prophetic spirit by which, being endowed with it, she knew this Infant, who at this hour was being redeemed in the temple according to the law, to be the Saviour of the world, and announced Him thus known to others, Scripture relates these few things: Now she at the same hour coming in confessed to the Lord: and spoke of him to all that looked for the redemption of Israel, Luke chapter 2, verse 38. Our Toletus illuminates the text with this exposition: She, he says, namely the Woman, of what sort and how great she has already been described, at this same hour, when Simeon had Christ in his arms and was singing his hymn, coming in as if led by the same Spirit as Simeon, that to his testimony she might add her own also, confessed to the Lord, that is, followed Christ Himself with praises. But the Greek word (ἀνθωμολογεῖτο) has a stronger impression, as if it were said, confessed in turn, that is, sang in answer to Simeon, and, as he confessed, she too confessed. For the particle ἀντὶ in composition indicates a reciprocity of that thing which the verb to which it is joined signifies; and so Anna confessed in turn with Simeon. Some annotation being interposed, he goes on thus: Not only did she confess to the Lord, but also to those faithful who stood by, who looked for the redemption of Israel that was to come through Christ, she spoke of him, announcing that He was the Christ and the promised Messiah, through whom the awaited redemption and salvation was to be effected.
[13] The holy Widow was of great age when she prophesied in the temple, as is plain from the Evangelist in verses 36 and 37: She was far advanced in years, and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow until fourscore and four years, etc. But since it is very ambiguous whether that number of 84 years is to be understood of her widowhood or of the Saint's age, it cannot be determined how far advanced her old age was. whether in the 84th year of her widowhood or of her age, is controverted. St. Ambrose here, Erasmus, and Diego de Estella judge that she was a widow for 84 years: and Henricus Rampen, Doctor of Sacred Theology of Louvain, thus proves it: It seems more likely that the year of her widowhood is signified: for if the years of her age were to be understood, there was no reason why he should set before it that she was far advanced in days: then, since he had explained the time of the duration of her marriage in these words, "She had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity," it remained that the Evangelist should consequently explain the time of her widowhood. According to this opinion the Saint was at least about 104 years old at the time when the Mother of God came into the temple to undergo the law of women in childbirth, from which she was exempt. For she married in the beginning of her thirteenth year of age; add 7 years in which she lived married, and 84 in which she lived a widow; you will have 104. Yet most other interpreters, following Euthymius as their guide, say that St. Luke by these words, And she was a widow until fourscore and four years, wished to express not the time of her widowhood but of her life. Why they so judge, many add this reason: because of a woman of 104 years or more the things which the Evangelist subjoins cannot conveniently enough be understood: Who departed not from the temple, by fastings and prayers serving night and day. That so aged a woman was so frequent and assiduous in the temple, or gave herself so long and so much to those works of piety, appears to them less credible. This opinion, if not more, is at least equally probable with the former. How long she survived after seeing Christ is not known. Yet I should not think that I have gone astray in noting above that her passing to the Fathers in limbo happened at the beginning of the first century.