Joachim

Saint Joachim is the patron of grandfathers because he is, in the literal flesh, the grandfather of Christ — the father of the Virgin Mary, according to the ancient tradition preserved in the Protoevangelium of James. That same tradition holds that he and his wife Anne were aged and long childless before the angel promised them a daughter, which makes him the natural patron of those who suffer infertility, of married couples longing for a child, and of the elderly who still hope. His patronage of linen traders comes by legend from his being a man of substance whose offerings to the Temple were once refused because he had no offspring — and from the fine linens associated with the holy family’s wealth and the swaddling of the Child.