Anna (Hebrew Hannah, 'grace') was the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher (Luke 2:36) — the only New Testament person identified with that tribe (one of the lost ten northern tribes of Israel), suggesting she was of long Galilean Jewish ancestry returned to Judea. Widowed after seven years of marriage, she lived as an aged widow in continuous prayer at the Temple — Luke records her age as 'eighty-four years' (Luke 2:37) and notes that 'she departed not from the Temple, by fasting and prayers serving night and day.'
She came up to the Temple at the moment Simeon was holding the infant Christ in his arms (the Presentation; see Simeon's entry). She recognized the Christ-Child and 'confessed to the Lord, and spoke of him to all that looked for the redemption of Israel' (Luke 2:38). She is the first person in the New Testament to publicly evangelize about Christ outside his immediate family circle.
She is venerated jointly with Simeon in the Byzantine Synaxis of February 16 — the day after the great feast of the Presentation (the Hypapante, February 2). Her example is invoked in the Roman tradition as patroness of long widowhood in continuous prayer and as the model of late-life witness to the Gospel.