The Middle English Stanzaic Versions of the Life of St Anne (Early English Text Society Original Series)

Saint Anne or Anna is known by tradition as the mother of The Virgin Mary. According to the non-canonical Gospel of James, Anna and her husband Joachim, after years of childlessness, were visited by an angel who told them that they would conceive a child. Anna promised to dedicate the child to God's service. Joachim and Anna brought Mary to live in the Second Temple when Mary was about three years old. St. Anne is a patron saint of Quebec and Brittany, and patroness of women in labor and miners. The story is similar to the story of Samuel whose mother had also been childless and was named Hannah. The story was not accepted in the Western church until the 13th century although, in the Eastern church, dedications to Saint Anna date to the 6th century. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Anna is ascribed the title Forbear of God. Mr. Parker made accessible three hitherto unprinted poems on St. Anne, all from the fifteenth a northern version from the Phillips MS. 8122, now University of Minnesota MS. Z. 822, N. 81; a southeast Midland version in rime royal; and a more northern version in quatrains. The second and third were written for the celebration of the Feast of St. Anne, one probably for St. Anne's Guild at Bury St. Edmunds.