Jesus’s Maternal Grandmother and Aunts

In her youth, Anne, who was raised in the vicinity of Mount Carmel,
had contemplated a life of perpetual virginity. (This was a highly
individualistic family.) However, the monks of the areas had a premonition,
solidified by angelic revelations, that the Saviour was to be her descendant,
and she was married to the pious and
wealthy Joachim.

Anne was widowed shortly after the infant Mary's presentation in the temple. She would
marry twice again, to Cleopas and to Salomas, and, with unprecedented
fertility, bear two more daughters, both named Mary in remembrance of her
firstborn. Jesus’s aunts were known as Mary Salome and
Mary Cleopas, and were to be perpetually confused
with the Maries who are mentioned in the scriptures as having been present for
the crucifixion.

Mary Cleopas bore four sons, James the Just, Joses, Simon and Jude, who are named in the Scriptures as “Jesus’s brothers” because of the close
kinship.

Mary Salomemarried Zebedee, and their sons, James and John, were among the Apostles, rounding out a quite distinguished family circle.

Elizabethhad married Joachim’s nephew, Zacharias (son of Jacob). Since Zacharias also was Joseph’s brother, the family ties are more extensive than the scriptures illustrate. Joseph’s other brother, Clopas, was the father of Simeon, the second bishop of Jerusalem.

Jesus’s Great-Grandmother

Anne’s mother, Esmerentia, has perhaps the most intriguing history of all the family members. Esmerentia was born, of David’s
line, at the foot of Mount Carmel. She embraced a monastic life (this family
were trend-setters, and “way ahead of their time”) in the company of the Carmelite
monks who dwelled in the vicinity.