Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate

Benedict Chelidonius' work describes the story of the married couple Joachim and Anne, who, though they are devoted to each other, are deeply unhappy as they are childless, which they take as a sign that they must have been rejected by God.

According to Chelidonius: "Overjoyed Anne threw herself into the arms of her husband; together they rejoiced about the honour that was to be granted them in the form of a child.

In a 1410 French Mass book, Anne and Joachim are depicted in front of a castlelike structure representing the Golden Gate.

[4] Gradually more allegorical depictions of the Immaculate Conception, featuring an adult Mary, replace this scene in representing the doctrine.

Aquinas in the Summa Theologiae affirmed that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived by a union of flesh of her parents and therefore incurred in the original sin, but that it was cleansed before her birth.