Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Collect:
Almighty God, heavenly Father, we remember in thanksgiving this day the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and we pray that we all may be made one in the heavenly family of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Scriptures tell us nothing about the parents of the Virgin Mother, not even their names. An early but unreliable document, known as the Proto-Gospel (or Proto-Evangelion) of James, calls them Anne and Joachim, by which names they are customarily known. Our only real information about them, however, is an inference from the kind of daughter they reared.
The Lectionary, James Kiefer, http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Parents_Mary.htm
