St Anne traditionally the mother of the Virgin Mary, first mentioned by name in the apocryphal gospel of James (2nd century). The extreme veneration of St Anne in the late Middle Ages was attacked by Luther and other reformers. She is the patron saint of Brittany and the province of Quebec in Canada. Her feast day is 26 July.

Anne, St. Mother of the Virgin Mary, of whom nothing certain is known: she does not appear in the Bible, but only in legends beginning with the Protogospel of James. Her cult, by then widely popular, was attacked by the Reformers. Feast day, in the W. (with St Joachim her husband), 26 July; in the E., 25 July.

St Anne. Eng. hymn-tune of disputed orig. but probably comp. by William Croft, who pubd. it in 1708. Usually sung to words ‘O God, our help in ages past’. J. S. Bach's Fugue in E♭ for org. (last item of Klavierübung, Book 3, 1739) begins with same notes and is known in Eng. as St Anne Fugue.