St. Anna the Prophetess appears very briefly in the Gospel of Luke—she received the young child, Jesus, when Mary and Joseph brought him to the Temple to be dedicated to the Lord.

According to Jewish law, parents were to present each male child to the Lord by offering sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem. Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the Temple, and were greeted there by Simeon, who had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before seeing the messiah (Lk 2:25-26).

After Mary and Joseph and Jesus met Simeon, they encountered Anna:

“There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage, and then as a widow until she was 84. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer. And coming forward at that very time, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem” (Lk 2:36-38)

This exhausts our knowledge of Anna, but even this brief description tells us what is most important about her. Unlike Simeon, who knew he would find the messiah, Anna simply recognized the Lord. After decades and decades in the Temple, seeing people coming and going with their sacrifices every day, she had the vision to recognize that one young couple and their child were unlike any of the others.

What gave her that ability to see—to recognize the divine in the midst of the ordinary? All we know is that she fasted and prayed—she cultivated a close relationship with God. She knew God—she was familiar with God because she spoke with God every day. And that familiarity opened her eyes to recognizing God’s presence in situations outside of prayer. The same is true for us—a habit of prayer opens our eyes to recognize God’s presence in the rest of our life experience.

Relics of St. Anna the Prophetess rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica. She is depicted in the fresco above standing to the far right in a brown cloak, observing Joseph and Mary presenting the child, Jesus, to Simeon.

St. Anna the Prophetess, of the thousands of people you saw in the Temple, you instantly recognized Jesus—pray for us!