St Joachim

Almost nothing certain can be said about Joachim personally beyond his place in Christian devotion as the father of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The familiar names Joachim and Anne, and the fuller domestic story usually told about them, come from apocryphal writings such as the Protevangelium of James rather than from Scripture or any firm early historical record. That does not mean every pious belief connected with those writings must be rejected out of hand.

Christian devotion may reverently keep what does not conflict with the faith. But devotion should not harden late tradition into false certainty. What remains strongest is simple and sufficient: the Church honors Joachim as the father of Our Lady, and Christians may reasonably believe that he and Anne were persons of genuine holiness, chosen to stand at the beginning of the earthly line from which Christ took flesh.