I have always had a soft spot for S Anne, not least because she is the Patron of my wife's college at Oxford (we sent two of our children there) ... and, indeed, contributes one of her own names. Some years ago, I found it touching to seek out some of the remnants in Brittany of their devotion to their Patron ... Anna Potentissima, for example, and all that, written in large letters around the walls of the Church at Pontrieux. I pointed it out to Junior Granddaughter, whose name is Anna.
Dom Gueranger, in his marvellous collection of materials, gives us a Responsory in her honour (Anna sanctissima Britonum spes et tutela: quam in prosperis adiutricem, in adversis auxiliatricem habemus ...). reminding us of how the people of that land once suffered because they were hesitant to accept the Evil which is embodied in the godless prayer Vive la Republique.
Gueranger reminds us that S Anne was also the splendor Provinciae. But I will leave you with this Breton hymn.
Lucis beatae gaudiis
Gestit parens Ecclesia,
Annamque Iudaeae decus
Matrem Mariae concinit.
Regum piorum sanguini
Iungens Sacerdotes avos,
Illustris Anna splendidis
Vincit genus virtutibus.
Coelo favente nexuit
Vincli iugalis foedera,
Alvoque sancta condidt
Sidus perenne virginum.
O mira coeli gratia!
Annae parentis in sinu
Concepta virgo conterit
Saevi draconis verticem.
Tanto salutis pignore
Iam sperat humanum genus:
Orbi redempto praevia
Pacem columba nuntiat.
Sit laus Patri, sit Filio,
Tibique Sancte Spiritus.
Annam pie colentibus
Confer perennem gratiam. Amen.
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Many thanks for drawing our attention to this lovely hymn, Father. (Verse 2, line 2, seems to be missing a syllable. Did you mean to type "sacerdotes"? It seems to be Illustris Anna who is iungens.)
Lucis beatae gaudiis can be found, with its melody, in the appendix to the 1895 Solesmes Liber responsorialis, pp. 444-5, where a proper Invitatory antiphon and hymn are provided for monastic Nocturns of S. Anne (July 26) "pro congregatione Gallica":
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1501073/m1/448/
Father, if you see this comment -- please pray for Hatun Tash, a evangelical Christian apologist who was stabbed by Muslims, in Speaker's Corner today.
She's a tough little woman, but she's already been slammed in the face, gotten thrown out of her apartment for being "too dangerous" to keep around, and basically been treated like crud in what's supposed to be a safe place for free speech.
Obviously I wish she'd become Catholic....
And then, of course, there is the 'Vatican II' version:-
'Holy Ann. God's nan. Ora pro nobis.'
Funny how in this age of alleged increased respect for women, the Church decided to downgrade the feast of St. Anne so that now she has to share it with St. Joachim. To add insult to injury my Novus Ordo breviary instructs us to use the Common of Holy MEN today. I ignored that and used the Common of Holy Women instead. St. Anne (and St. Joachim) Ora Pro Nobis.
St Anne, you know my petition
AvB.
Speaking of things Breton, you may (or may not) be edified to learn that the Free Breton movement has recently received a shot in the arm from an English T-shirt manufacturer who discovered that a batch of T-shirts inscribed with a 'Free Britney' message intended to support Britney Spears had been misspelt as 'freebrittaney'. Not much of a hit in America, but apparently all the rage now in Armorica, where they are selling like hot 'galettes de sarrasin'. (That old French name for buckwheat is itself piquantly suggestive of an earlier ethnic struggle.)
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