This weekend, the Archdiocese of Detroit sets aside the ordinary rhythm of the liturgical year to honor its patroness. Sunday, July 26, is the feast of Sts. Anne and Joachim, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Because St. Anne is patroness of our archdiocese, her feast is elevated here to a Solemnity, replacing the usual readings for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. It is a rare grace to celebrate the mother of Our Lady and the grandmother of Our Lord — a saint woven into the very DNA of Catholic Detroit. View an outstanding video of Archbishop Weisenburger's Sunday Homily about St. Anne: Detroit's Great Patroness here. 

A Faith Forged in Hardship

Though Scripture never names Anne and Joachim, Christian tradition has honored them for centuries. The earliest known reference, the Protoevangelium of James from around 150 A.D., tells us that Anne was advanced in years and had no children — a circumstance often seen in biblical times as a curse or a sign of God's disfavor. Where others might have grown bitter, St. Anne remained wholly devoted to God, trusting His promises even when she could not understand her own situation. Her perseverance was answered beyond all expectation: an angel foretold that she would conceive a daughter who, in the words of that ancient text, "shall be spoken of in all the world." Devotional tradition remembers her for a truth that still consoles those who wait on God — that the greatest miracle is not the absence of hardship, but the grace to endure it with faith.

Planted on the Banks of the Detroit River

That same faith crossed an ocean to reach us. Devotion to St. Anne took deep root in France, and French settlers carried it to the new world, entrusting themselves to her protection. In July of 1701, only two days after Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac landed at what is now downtown Detroit, the settlers celebrated Mass and began building a church in her honor — the first in the entire region. Ste. Anne's would serve as Detroit's first cathedral, and today the parish is a basilica and the second-oldest continually operating parish in the United States. A 2011 clarification from the Vatican confirmed what Detroit Catholics had always believed: St. Anne has been our patroness from that very first day.

A Patroness for Our Mission

St. Anne's witness is not only history — it is a pattern for the work we are called to today. At Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan, we walk alongside neighbors carrying real burdens: families facing hunger, older adults seeking dignity and companionship, individuals rebuilding after crisis. St. Anne reminds us that faith is not the absence of difficulty, but the grace to persevere through it in hope — and that promises are often fulfilled in ways and timing we could never have foreseen. Every meal served, every door opened, every person met with compassion is an act of that same trust.

As we celebrate our patroness this weekend, we ask her intercession over the families and neighbors we serve, and over all who labor to answer their needs. May we see one another anew through her eyes.

Answer St. Anne's example of faith in action — find a way to serve your neighbor at www.ccsem.org/get-involved.