In many predominantly Catholic countries, such as parts of Europe and Latin America, July 26 marks a day honoring grandparents and great-grandparents. This cultural development arises from a connection to the feast day of Saints Anne and Joachim, the parents of the Virgin Mary and thus the biological grandparents of Jesus who are celebrated liturgically on that day. In 2021, Pope Francis extended elements of this tradition to the universal Church, making the fourth Sunday of July the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. This year, the fifth of such celebrations takes place July 27.
Pope Leo has continued this initiative, supporting this year’s theme, “Blessed are those who have not lost hope,” which is taken from the Book of Sirach. Connecting the festivities with the ongoing Jubilee Year, Pope Leo’s message published for the 2025 World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly made clear: “those who are unable to come to Rome on pilgrimage during this Holy Year may ‘obtain the Jubilee indulgence if they visit, for an appropriate amount of time, the elderly who are alone … making, in a sense, a pilgrimage to Christ, present in them (cf. Mt 25:34-36),’” – citing here the Norms for Granting Jubilee Indulgences.
Of course, reflecting on Jesus’ own grandparents involves some level of imagination, since we know so little about them from the Scriptures. Neither Anne nor Joachim are mentioned by name in the Bible. However, Catholic tradition has developed more extensive reflections on Mary’s parents than those of Joseph, even though the genealogy in Saint Matthew’s Gospel does tell us Jesus’ paternal grandfather’s name was Jacob, the son of Mattan.
An antiquated legend existed that Saint Anne was married three times, and had three daughters named Mary: the Blessed Virgin, Mary Cleophas and Mary Salome, along with her niece, Elizabeth. According to this convoluted family tree, which emphasized the holy kinship of the early disciples along the lines of a powerful aristocratic family, Anne was responsible for up to 16 of the characters we see in the Gospel narratives – including being the grandmother of five of the 12 apostles, making many of them Jesus’ first cousins. Some early art depicts this lineage, though later theologians dismissed its implication that Anne was married multiple times after Joachim (who in this theory, died well before her). However, artists continued to paint the famous embrace at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem, where Anne and her husband celebrate the Immaculate (but naturally occurring) conception of their daughter, who will become the Blessed Virgin.
The tiny parish church in Vatican City, coincidentally long staffed by Augustinian priests like the current Holy Father, is called Sant’Anna de’ Palafrenieri, as she is the patroness of the pontifical groomsmen and papal horsemen. Caravaggio’s famous painting where Mary holds the young Jesus as they together crush the head of a serpent with Saint Anne looking on once hung there before being sold to Cardinal Scipione Borghese. Today it can be found in the art gallery named for his family.
It is clear that Catholicism values intergenerational relationships to a remarkable degree. Not only are we called to respect our parents and grandparents, but the entire tradition of the communion of saints emphasizes that bonds stretch out not only to those sharing the faith around the world today (synchronically), but also through time back to those who came before us and on whose figurative shoulders we now stand (diachronically). As the pastoral directives for the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly published by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life point out, this recognition should not be occasional or deemed extraordinary. Rather, all Christians should see it as a regular, structural and everyday pedagogy “that teaches us to recognize [the elderly’s] irreplaceable role as keepers of memory, witnesses of faith and teachers of life.”
An alumnus of Camden Catholic High School, Cherry Hill, Michael M. Canaris, Ph.D., teaches at Loyola University, Chicago.
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