I hope you had a lovely weekend. And thankfully, my computer recovered!
Several years ago for my 25th Wedding Anniversary, my husband and I had the opportunity to travel through Europe. It was an amazing adventure, and we were very fortunate to be able to visit Paris. This was during The Da Vinci Code craze. Let me tell you, the Parisians did not relish the attention Dan Brown's book foisted upon them. Several tour guides at the beginning of their narrations before anyone in our group could even ask if something they had read in the book was true, stated flat out: The Da Vinci Code is not true.
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| The Eiffel Tower at Night |
Not to get all Dan Brown on you, but I wanted to tell you about St. Anne's connection to France. The things we know about St. Anne have been handed down through the centuries and are based on the non-biblical Protoevangelium of James, which was written in the second century. According to tradition, Joachim, Anne's husband, was a well-respected man, but sadly, he and Anne were childless. Anne, prayed for a baby, and God blessed her with Mary. Anne was so grateful, she dedicated her child to God when Mary was very young. Hence, all those paintings of Anne presenting Mary in the Temple.
Now, here's where what is known about St. Anne starts to veer off into Dan Brown territory. There are some legends that state that Mary Magdalene brought St. Anne's remains with her to Apt, France, in the first century when Jerusalem fell. Her relics were supposedly buried there in the church and then lost. However, 800 years later Charlemagne found them. From that time on, France has had a special bond with St. Anne.
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| Charlemagne's Coronation as painted by Raphael 1516-1517 |
The origin of the St. Anne prayer, which features prominently in St.Anne's Day, is as equally as sketchy as the details of St. Anne's life. No one knows for sure where it came from, but thank goodness Dan Brown didn't know about it, or he may have beaten me to the punch and used it as the subject of one of his novels. Though I doubt Anne would have had much interest in the Fibonacci sequence or Peg would have put up with his shenanigans!
Don't forget to enter the sweepstakes and invite your friends. The festivities will soon be concluding. So don't miss out.
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