According to Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and the maternal
grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her
husband Joachim come only from New Testament apocrypha, of which the Gospel of James (written perhaps around 150)
seems to be the earliest that mentions them. The mother of Mary is mentioned but not named in the Quran.
The story bears a similarity to that of the birth of Samuel, whose mother Hannah (Hebrew: חַנָּה Ḥannāh "favour,
grace"; etymologically the same name as Anne) had also been childless. Although Anne receives little attention
in the Latin Church prior to the late 12th century, dedications to Anne in Eastern Christianity occur as early
as the 6th century. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Anne and Joachim are ascribed the title Ancestors of God,
and both the Nativity of Mary and the Presentation of Mary are celebrated as two of the twelve Great Feasts of the
Orthodox Church. The Dormition of Anne is also a minor feast in Eastern Christianity. In Lutheran Protestantism,
it is held that Martin Luther chose to enter religious life as an Augustinian friar after invoking St. Anne while
endangered by lightning.