Are there Catholic writings of popes or bishops that mention Anne the mother of Saint Mary before the condemnation of Protoevangelium of James?
To my knowledge the answer is no.
Anne’s and Joachim’s names are not mentioned in the Bible, so the accounts of their lives come to us extra-canonically. Their names are referenced in an apocryphal, early Christian text known as the Protoevangelium of James. The Protoevangelium was not included in the canon of Scripture because its recorded accounts seem unrealistic and fantastical. For example, one of its stories describes the maiming of a midwife who disbelieves the perpetual virginity of Mary. While some of its stories are dismissed, the Protoevangelium is referenced as a legitimate source text for at least two things: the names of Joachim and Anne and the Presentation of Mary in the Temple. So it can’t be all bad then!
St. Anne is mentioned fifteen times in the Protoevangelium of James. The principal references relate to the conception of Mary—how Anne and Joachim were barren, how both prayed for a child, and then God gave them Mary. The Protoevangelium does not provide any other details of Joachim’s and Anne’s life, nor does it record when they died. - What do we Know about St. Anne
Just because Pope Innocent I condemned the Protoevangelium of James as not being part of the Church’s canonical list of books inspired by God to be in it’s Biblical Canon and designating it to the list of Apocryphal Books, does not mean that there are not some truths within it’s lines that are from the very foundations of the Church. This is not to say St. Anne and St. Joachim's names had not been part of an existing oral tradition. “Just because it is uncanonical doesn’t mean everything in it is false.” - (Msgr. Daniel Trapp).
It is clear that the Protoevangelium of James dates back to the years 120-150 A.D. which is outside the the domain of Public Revelation, which ended with the death of the last Apostle, St. John in the year +/- 101 A.D.
Nevertheless the Protoevangelium of James never lost it’s influence in the Churches of the East, at an epoch where both East and West were still united in one faith. The Church in the East never ceased in this tradition that St. Anne was the mother of Mary.
Scholars generally accept that the Gospel of James was originally composed in Greek. Over 100 Greek manuscripts have survived, and translations were made into Syriac, Ethiopic, Sahidic Coptic, Georgian, Old Church Slavonic, Armenian, Arabic, and presumably Latin, given that it was apparently known to the compiler of the Gelasian Decree. The oldest is Papyrus Bodmer 5 from the fourth or possibly third century, discovered in 1952 and now in the Bodmer Library, Geneva, while the fullest is a 10th-century Greek codex in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
The Gospel of James was a widely influential source for Christian doctrine regarding Mary. According to Bernhard Lohse, it is the earliest assertion of her perpetual virginity, meaning her virginity not just prior to the birth of Jesus, but during the birth and afterwards. Its explanation of the gospels' "brothers of Jesus" (the adelphoi) as the offspring of Joseph by an earlier marriage remains the position of the Eastern church. Richard Bauckham noted that "It is possible that the brothers of Jesus were correctly remembered not to have been sons of Mary and that this made possible the development of the idea of Mary's perpetual virginity as a result. Good historical tradition certainly was still available in the early second century, even if mixed with much legendary material." In the West, influential theologian Jerome asserted that Joseph himself had been a perpetual virgin, and that the adelphoi were cousins of the Lord. Jerome's opposition to the Protevangelium led to a diminished influence and circulation in the western, Latin church. It was condemned by Pope Innocent I in 405 and rejected by the Gelasian Decree around 500. It was completely unknown in the West, and it was taken over by the widely read Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, which popularized most of its stories. - Protoevangelium of James
It is thanks to this document that the Church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple on November 21st each year. The feast of the Presentation of Mary originated as a result of the dedication of the New Church of the Theotokos, built in 543 by the Byzantines under Emperor Justinian I near the site of the ruined Temple in Jerusalem. For Wikipedia to state that the Protoevangelium ofJames was “completely unknown in the West, and it was taken over by the widely read Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, which popularized most of its stories,” is hard to believe and also mentions the name of Anne.
One of the main reasons why this book was condemned, lies in the fact that it was ascribed to the Apostle St. James which was clearly not the case.
