Biography of Anna of the Prophetitsa

Share photos: K. For this, the Virgin Mary and the righteous Joseph came to the Jerusalem Temple. There, the Holy Family was met by St. Simeon and the prophetess Anna. Who was this woman? How did she deserve such an honor and mercy of God? The evangelist Luke informs her full name - Anna, the daughter of Fanuel, she was eighty -four years old. We know a little about the fate of this woman, but there are enough several strokes to imagine the life and character of Anna.

It is known that she married, but only seven years lived in marriage. Anna widowed early, in those days this meant the loss of everything - money, status. Legal and property rights were then only among men. However, Anna did not marry a second time, she preferred poverty, but remained faithful to her husband. The woman led a righteous life at the Jerusalem Temple, served God "fasting and prayer." It was a common practice for that time: young girls were brought up at the temple, and widows constantly lived.

And she also believed with all her heart in the quick performance of prophecies and the arrival of the Messiah. Saint Amphilochia Ikoniysky in his “Word for a Sitting” calls the prophecue Anna “Wedners of Widows”: “The body is exhausted, the soul of Bodra; face in wrinkles, the mind is straightened; Gogbenna from old age, straight by thought; For years, wilted, blooming by God's knowledge.

" The Evangelist Luke describes so much that it was next: “And she .. that is, the woman joyfully began to tell everyone that the time for the exquisite was performed - the Savior was granted to the world. But few people listened to the old woman. It was difficult for people to believe that a defenseless weak newborn baby is the Son of God. Only two such different people: the sage Simeon and the poor widow realized at that moment what a miracle happened to the whole world.

The evangelist Luke in all the new Testament only Anna calls the prophetess. It symbolically completes a number of prophetesses and heroines of the ancient history of Israel. In him, both Mariam, the sister of Moses, and Devora, who was called "Judge and Mother of Israel", and the patriot of Judith, and many others. Together with Simeon and the prophetess Anna, like all the righteous and the prophets of the Old Testament were able to touch the Lord.

At the same time, Anna was one of the first to be in the world of “good news” about the Savior or Greek-“Gospel”.

There is a special day in the Orthodox Church when she recalls and honors Anna. This is the sixteenth of February in a new style, the day after the festival of the Retor of the Lord.