St. Joanna: A name meaning “God is Gracious”
Joanna (together with variants within a language, such as Joanne or JoAnn in English) is a name used in cultures as diverse as Albanian, German, Tamil and Ukrainian. See a list in Wikipedia.
Thoughts on St. Joanna:
Feast Day of St. Joanna in the Roman Catholic Church, May 24, from catholicsaints.info.
Feast Day of St. Joanna in the Orthodox Church, June 27, from the Orthodox Church in America.
Commemoration in the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, August 3, for Joanna, Mary, and Salome–Myrrhbearers, “faithful women” who have been “honored in the church through the centuries as examples of humble and devoted service to the Lord.” Joseph of Arimathea is commemorated a few days earlier, on July 31.
Bible Hub entry for Johanna.
Prologue from Ohrid. This compilation of lives of saints, hymns, reflections and homilies was written in Serbian by St. Nikolai Velimirovic, and contains an entry on St. Joanna. Here is a translation from the Australian and New Zealand Diocese of ROCOR (the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia). And another from the Serbian Orthodox Archdiocese.
Prologue of Ohrid for June 27 : 3. SAINT JOANNA, THE MYRRH-BEARER
Joanna was the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward: “Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward” (St. Luke 8:3). When Herod beheaded John the Baptist he disposed of his head in an unclean place. Joanna removed the head of the Baptist and buried it honorably on the Mount of Olives on Herod’s estate. Later, during the reign of Constantine the Great, the head of John the Baptist was discovered. St. Joanna is also remembered as being present both at the suffering and at the resurrection of the Lord. She died peacefully.
Thoughts on the Myrrhbearers:
Kostoff, Fr. Steven at oca.org, the site of the Orthodox Church in America.
Modern Myrrhbearers 