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# An illustration from a South German codex of 1417 shows the family tree of the descendants of Saint Anne
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/na-illiustratsii-iz-iuzhnogermanskogo-kodeksa-1417-goda-izobrazheno-genealogicheskoe-drevo-potomkov-sviatoi-anny/
- Published: 2025-07-26T19:18:07.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:29:19.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archive, Faith, Art

According to medieval tradition, Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, was married three times: to Joachim, Cleopas and Salomas (Salomé). From each marriage Anne had a daughter named Mary.

The seven grandchildren of Saint Anne depicted in medieval art are these: Jesus Christ, son of the Virgin Mary; James the Greater and John the Evangelist, sons of Mary Salome (the wife of Zebedee); James the Less, Simon, Jude Thaddaeus and Joseph the Just (Joses), sons of Mary of Cleopas.

Thus five of Christ's twelve apostles were his first cousins: James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, Jude Thaddaeus, James the son of Zebedee and John the Evangelist.

These apocryphal kinships explain why the “brothers” of Jesus in the Gospels were in fact his cousins, preserving the doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity and glorifying the spiritual family.