Detroit – St. Anne and her husband, St. Joachim, give today’s Christian’s an example of what it means to hold fast to God’s promises.
Archbishop Allen Vigneron, speaking to a congregation that overflowed out of Ste. Anne de Detroit Church on July 26, said Detroit’s patron saint and her husband, “call us, summon us, remind us to imitate them.”
“They were given a particular call by God in order to bring about the fulfillment of His plan,” the archbishop said, adding that each Catholic also should maintain such confidence in God.
The Mass marked the culmination of the annual St. Anne novena held each year at Detroit’s first Church. And it also marked the first feast day of St. Anne since the Vatican gave official recognition that she is – and always has been – the patroness of the city of Detroit.
As devotion to St. Anne has remained a strong part of the Church of Detroit since its founding in 1701 -- very near where the St. Anne feast day Mass was held 310 years later – countless had come to the church to show such devotion.
As happened for eight days leading up to the July 26 feast, a rosary was said before Mass. And following the liturgy, hundreds took part in a procession, during which the archbishop carried a relic of St. Anne around the outside courtyard.
A sweltering heat, which persisted throughout the novena, didn’t appear to keep St. Anne’s devotees away from the church for the annual feast. Chairs filled the aisles of the church, and dozens also gathered in the doorways in the back and sides of church, as the building couldn’t hold them.
In a brief, bi-lingual homily, Archbishop Vigneron told those gathered that every Christian has a mission to become a saint like St. Anne or St. Joachim. He told them that Jesus’ grandparents were examples of how to “hold fast to God’s promises,” and how to “fulfill our mission that we will contribute to the establishment of the kingdom of the son of David, Jesus Christ.”
For the laity, the archbishop stressed how important it was for them to focus on their families.
“It is precisely, above all, in our families that we fulfill our mission,” he said. “That is our contribution to the kingdom of Christ.”
At the close of Mass, Ste. Anne pastor Fr. Thomas Sepulveda thanked Archbishop Vigneron for celebrating the historic feast with the parish, and presented him with a Ste. Anne de Detroit T-shirt.
Following the Mass and procession, hundreds of parishioners and visitors remained at the parish to enjoy a reception at sundown.
Many of them belonged to the parish family – but many of them also had a connection with Detroit’s patron saint.
“I’ve had a devotion to St. Anne since 2001,” explained Christopher Din, a member of St. Josephat Parish in Detroit. He had been a member of National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, and was in that parish’s choir when they visited and sang at Ste. Anne de Detroit Church in 2001.
“As the mother of the Blessed Virgin, I found her to be a loving intercessor before God, before the Blessed Mother, and I have had this devotion ever since,” he said.
He noted that St. Anne emphasizes the importance of the family.
“I’m sure she has a very special place in the heart of our Lord, Jesus, and his mother, Mary,” Din said. “Just as when my grandparents were alive, I had a lot of affection for them, I’m sure that Jesus himself had a lot of affection for his grandmother.”
He added that it would benefit the archdiocese to remember that Jesus, like us, had a family that he loved.
Ramzia Shauni is another long-time attendee of the St. Anne novena. Each year, she brings a framed image of St. Anne, which is placed at the altar during Mass.
Why does she carry a devotion to St. Anne? Her reason is simple, she said.
“It’s Jesus’ grandmother, and the Blessed Mother’s mother,” she said. “Can you be any closer to Jesus than that?”
