On the last page of today’s L’Osservatore Romano, at the very bottom corner of the page, there is a note about “Celebrations in the Vatican” which caught my eye. At the parish church of the Vatican, St. Ann, on the memorial of St. Ann mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 26 July in the post-Conciliar calendar, there will be a celebration in honor of “i nonni… grandparents”.
Angelo Card. Comastri, Archpriest of the Vatican Basilica and Vicar General of Vatican City will lead the Angelus and a “supplica” to St. Ann along with a prayer for families. In the afternoon, Paolo Card. Sardi, Patron of the Sovereign Military of Malta, will preside and there will be prayers for all the grandparents and older people in the world.
There is so much going on around Christmas that the family thing is sort of squeezed in. But here in the middle of the summer, at least with the post-conciliar calendar, we have a family reminder.
Jesus was in a family.
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I think it would be great if the Feast of Sts Ann and Joachim became throughout the Church a day for praying for and honoring grandparents.
This is also a special day for us in the Archdiocese of Detroit, as the Holy See confirmed earlier this year that St. Anne is the patroness of the Archdiocese of Detroit (the City of Detroit was founded by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac on July 26, 1701, which also marks the establishment of the parish of Ste Anne de Detroit, the oldest continuously operating parish in the interior of the United States). This year will be the first time we celebrate July 26 as the archdiocesan patronal feast.
St. Josaphat parish will be celebrating the external solemnity of St. Anne on Sunday, July 24 with a Solemn High Mass at 9:30 a.m. We’re praying for a frigid wind to come and cool down the church before the weekend, especially for those who will be in the sanctuary and the choir loft.
Congrats on your local church’s big day, Tim.
The claim as to oldest parish seems odd, though, as I thought St. Francis in Santa Fe turns 400 years old this year.
They way things ought to be:
19 March: Fathers’ Day
08 September: Mothers’ Day
26 July: Grandparents’ Day
23 September: Extended Family’s Day (Sts. Zacharia and Elizabeth)
There will be a Solemn High Mass (EF) at St Ann, Charlotte, NC on 26 July.
26 July is also the Feast for our parish here in Southern Illinois.
St. Francis in Santa Fe was indeed founded in 1610, but it was destroyed in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, and the parish was not re-established until 1714, thirteen years after Ste. Anne.