She is the grandmother of Jesus. Though her name does not appear in the New Testament, Joachim and Anne are named as the parents of Mary in the writings of the first centuries of the Christian era.

People have been trekking to Lac Ste. Anne, 80 km west of Edmonton, for over 113 years. The first Oblate missionaries arrived on the shore of "Devil's Lake" in 1844. The native people gave it that name because they feared the fierce storms that often blew up when they were fishing on the lake.

By 1886 there was little growth so the Oblates were ready to abandon the mission. Father Jean-Marie Lestanc made a visit to the shrine of Ste. Anne d'Auray in France and while praying there, a voice challenged his decision to close the mission and he changed his mind.

On his return, he built a new church at Lac Ste. Anne and organized the first pilgrimage of about 100 people in June 1889. He organized a second pilgrimage that summer which gave birth to the annual pilgrimages that have become a major religious event in the West.

For many decades the Pilgrimage was a two-day event, always on Tuesday and Wednesday either coinciding with the Feast of Sainte Anne or immediately before it. In the past decade the pilgrimage has been extended between Saturday and Thursday morning always coinciding with the 26th of July or preceding it. People have come to expect the pilgrimage in the second last week of July and many plan ahead for it. For the sake of consistency, the same weekdays are always kept and the end of the month is avoided. Hopefully, in this way conflict will be avoided with other events that are preplanned for the end of July.

What happens to the feast of Sainte Anne when it falls after the official dates of the pilgrimage? First of all, we celebrate Sainte Anne within the pilgrimage days. The Church always allows us to anticipate a feast day for a good reason. Second, the local parish of Sainte Anne offers a mass to the people for that particular day.

I visited this place in the fall of 2006.