Ladies of Sainte Anne History
Sainte Anne, our heavenly grandmother, is looked upon to the fruit of her maternity, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was conceived Immaculate in her womb and granted to be the Mother of Jesus. With her husband Saint Joachim, Sainte Anne had waited and prayed 20 years before having a child. This is how God blessed her – to be the Grandmother of our Savior! Good Sainte Anne has blessed Sodalities in Europe, Canada, the United States, and probably elsewhere, with their piety, and their apostolic and charitable activities. 
Devotion to Sainte Anne
The grandparents of Our Lord Jesus, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, are not written about in the books of the Bible. Their story was written in the apocryphal writing, “ The Protoevangelium of James ”, an ancient Christian document dating from the middle of the second century. Devotion to Sainte Anne grew in the first centuries of Christianity, especially in the East, particularly in places of great Marian devotion. By the sixth century, a basilica was erected in honor of Sainte Anne in Constantinople and missionaries to France brought with them a great veneration of Our Lord’s human family. In the Brittany region of France, a chapel is believed to have been built in Sainte Anne’s honor in the 500s.
"Sic fingit tabernaculum Deo – "Thus she frames a tabernacle for God." Such was the inscription around the figure of St. Anne instructing Mary, which formed the coat of arms of the ancient guild of joiners and cabinet-makers; for they, looking upon the making of tabernacles wherein God may dwell in our churches as their most choice work, had taken St. Anne for their patroness and model." ( SOURCE ) Sainte Anne is the patron saint of the province of Québec in Canada. She is also the patron of childless couples, pregnant women, women in labor, homemakers, lace makers, miners (Christ compared to gold and Mary to silver) and more.
A Visit from Sainte Anne
Tradition holds that the structure built for Sainte Anne in Brittany was destroyed at the end of the sixth century. 900 years later, a good Christian man named Yves Nicolazic, who himself had a devotion to Sainte Anne, saw apparitions of her and received a message from her that there had once been a chapel in her honor in his village. She told him that the chapel was to be rebuilt in a particular field of his that was always verdant and fertile. Buried in this field, Yves discovered remnants of an ancient statue of Sainte Anne and stone ruins. This was in 1625. After a stringent, meticulous enquiry, the Bishop of Vannes, Msgr. Sebastien de Rosmadec acknowledged the sincerity and veracity of Yves’ claims and agreed to the rebuilding of the chapel. It was to be a place of pilgrimage, and increasing numbers of the faithful quickly began to travel there. Sainte-Anne d' Auray is still a major place of pilgrimage, comfort, healing, and hope, and it’s significance was reaffirmed by a visit from Pope John Paul II in 1996. (See more about the Shrine of Sainte d'Auray at http://www.sainteanne-sanctuaire.com/ )
Ladies of Sainte Anne
The Arch-Confraternity of Sainte Anne, whose goal is to promote Christian life and sanctify its members through an ever-increasing devotion to Sainte Anne, was established in Europe as early as 1657. Ladies of Sainte Anne flourished in Europe, Canada, and then in the United States. Immigrants from France brought their devotion across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. The Confraternity of Sainte Anne de Beaupré in Québec, Canada, was established on September 27, 1886, becoming an Arch-confraternity on April 26, 1887, by order of the Church’s supreme authority in Rome. French-Canadian immigrants to the United States also brought their love for the Saint with them – and with that love, The Ladies of Sainte Anne.
The St. Jean-Baptiste Ladies of Sainte Anne Sodality was the vision of Rev. Isidore H. C. Davignon, our third Pastor, who established “Les Dame de Sainte Anne” in our parish and registered us with the Arch-confraternity at Beaupre’s Shrine in Canada.
Since 1962, the French Ladies of Sainte Anne, “Les Dame de Sainte Anne”, have become an official group of Catholic Action, the movement of Christian Women. It is a very active Association in many dioceses of Quebec, New Brunswick, Ontario and Alberta. There are more than 30,000 members in almost 500 parishes. Sainte Anne remains the Patroness of the Movement. In the United States, the Ladies of Sainte Anne remain as they were, Sodalities of Ladies of Sainte Anne. Their statutes, however, were adapted to the new laws of the Church. This revision of Statutes was a necessity. It respects the spirit of Vatican II (Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, 19-22; passim) and the New Code of Canon Law (Associations of the Christian Faithful, Can. 298-329).
