backJune 24th: The Nativity of St John, the
Forerunner and Baptist of Christ,
The Patronal Feastday of our Parish
Six months before his appearing to the most holy
Virgin Mary in Nazareth, the great Gabriel, archangel of the Lord, appeared to
Zacharias the High Priest in the Temple in Jerusalem. Before he revealed the
miraculous conception by a virgin who had not know a man, the archangel revealed
the wondrous conceiving by and old and barren woman. Zacharias and Elisabeth
gathered together on that day for the infant’s circumcision and naming. When
they inquired of the father how he wished the child to be called, he, still
being dumb, wrote on a slate: ‘John’. At that moment his tongue was loosed and
he began to speak. Zacharias’s house was on the heights between Bethlehem and
Hebron. The news of the angel’s appearing to Zacharias, of his dumbness and of
the loosening of his tongue at the exact moment that he wrote ‘John’, was
carried throughout all Israel, coming to Herod’s ears. So, when he sent men to
kill all the infants around Bethlehem, he sent men off to Zacharias’s family
house in the hills, to slay John also. But Elisabeth hid the child in good time.
The king was enraged at this, and sent and executioner to the Temple to kill
Zacharias (for it was then his turn to serve in the Temple again). Zacharias was
killed between the court and the Temple, and his blood clotted and solidified on
the paving slabs, and remained as and enduring witness against Herod. Elisabeth
hid herself and the child in a cave, where she soon died. The young John
remained in the wilderness alone, in the care of God and His angels.
August 29th: The Beheading of St. John the Baptist
Herod Antipas, son of Herod who slew the young
children in Bethlehem at the time if the birth of the Lord Jesus, was ruler if
Galilee when John the Baptist was preaching. This Herod was married to the
daughter if Aretas, an Arabian prince. But Herod, an evil branch of evil stock,
put away his lawful wife and took Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, to live
with him while Philip was still alive. John the Baptist stood up against this
lawlessness and strongly denounced Herod, at which Herod threw him into prison.
At the time of some feast at his court in Sebastia in Galilee, Salome, the
daughter of Herodias and Philip, danced for the guests. Herod, in his cups (ie,
drunk - ed.) and carried away by her dancing, promised her whatever she asked,
even to the half of his kingdom. Instructed by her mother, she asked for the
head of St. John the Baptist. Herod commanded that John be beheaded in the
prison and his head brought on s platter. John’s disciples took the body of
their teacher by night and buried it, but Herod tore out John’s tongue with a
needle and then buried his head in an unclean place. What later happened to
John’s head is recorded and can be read under February 24th.
God’s punishment was quickly visited upon this group of evil-doers. Prince Aretas, to avenge his daughter’s honor, attacked Herod with his army and brought him to his knees. The defeated Herod was condemned by the Roman Caesar, Cealigula, to exile first in Gaul, and then in Spain. As exiles, Herod and Herodias lived in need and debasement until the earth opened and swallowed them up. Salome, Herodias’s daughter came to a bad end in the river Sikaris (Sula). While living in Spain, in the town of Lerida, with the exiled Herod and Herodias, she began to cross the frozen river, Sikaris. The ice broke and she fell into the water up to her throat. Pieces of the ice held her by the throat, and she struggled, dancing with her legs in the water as she once danced in Herod’s court. She could neither raise herself or sink, and in the end a fragment of ice decapitated her. The water carried her body away, but her head was taken on a platter to Herodias, as had earlier been the head of John the Baptist.
The death of John took place before the Passover, but it’s commemoration on August 29th was instituted because it was on this day that a church, that had been built over his grave in Sebatia by the Emperor Constantine and the Empress Helena, was consecrated. In this church were also placed the relics of John’s disciples, Eliseus and Audius.
September 23rd: The Conception of St. John the Forerunner
On this day are celebrated God's mercy, His
wondrous act and His wisdom: His mercy towards the devout and righteous parents
of St. John, the aged Zacharias and Elisabeth, who had all their lives begged a
child of God; the wonder of the conception of John in Elisabeth's more-than-aged
womb; and the wisdom of the dispensation of man's salvation. For John, God had a
specially great plan: that he should be a prophet and the forerunner of Christ
the Lord, the Saviour of the world. Through His angels, God revealed the birth
of Isaac to the childless Sarah, and of Samson to the childless Manoah and his
wife, and of John the Forerunner to the childless Zacharias and Elisabeth.
Through His angels, God revealed the birth of those for whom He had a special
plan. How could children be born of aged parents? If someone is curious to find
out, let him not ask men, for men do not know, nor does natural law (it being
beyond natural law), but let him turn his gaze to the power of almighty God, who
made the whole world from nothing and who, for the creation of Adam, the first
man, used no parents, either young or old. Instead of being curious, let us
thank God that He often reveals to us His power and mercy and wisdom beyond the
natural law, by which we would otherwise be fettered and, without these special
wonders of God, would fall into despair and forgetfulness of Him.
January 7th:Commemoration of St.
John the Baptist
John’s greatest role during his life was enacted
on the day of Theophany, and because of this the church has, from the earliest
times, dedicated the day following that feast to his memory. St John is
commemorated several times during the year, but his greatest feast is on this
day, January 7th. Among the gospel-figures surrounding the Savior, the person of
John the Baptist holds a very special place by the manner of his birth in this
world and of his earthly life, by his role of Baptiser of men to repentance and
his baptism of the Messiah, and, lastly, by the tragic manner of his departure
from this world. He was of such mortal purity that he indeed deserved the name
"angel" (ie, messenger; hence he is often depicted in icons with wings - ed.) as
he was named in the scriptures rather than being thought of as just a mortal
man. John differs from all the other prophets in that he had the joy of showing
forth to the world the One Whom he had foretold.
This day is also connected with an event involving the hand of the Forerunner. The Evangelist Luke desired to take John’s body from Sebaste where the great prophet had been beheaded by Herod, to Antioch, his own birthplace. He suceeded, though, in acquiring and taking only one hand, which was kept in Antioch till the tenth century. It was then moved to Constantinple, when it disappeared during the Turkish occupation.
It is related that each year, on his feast-day, the archbishop would bring the hand out before the people. Sometimes the hand appeared open, and sometimes clenched. In the first case it indicated that it would be a fertile year, and in the second that it would be a year of famine.
February 24th: The First and Second Finding of the Head of St John the Baptist.
The great and glorious Forerunner was beheaded at the wish and request of the wicked Herodias, wife of Herod. When John had been beheaded, Herodias ordered that his head should not be buried with his body, for she feared that the terrible prophet would somehow rise from the dead. So she took his head and buried it in some hidden and unworthy place, deep in the earth. Her lady-in-waiting was Joanna the wife of Chuza, a courtier of Herod’s. This good and God-fearing Joanna could not bear that the head of the godly man should remain in an unworthy place, so she disinterred it secretly, took it to Jerusalem and buried it on the Mount of Olives. Not knowing about all this, King Herod, when he heard about Christ and His great miracles, was afraid and said: ‘It is John, whom I beheaded; he is risen from the dead!’ (Mk. 6;16). After a considerable time, an eminent government official came to believe in Christ, left his position in the world and became a monk. Under the name Innocent, he settled on the Mount of Olives, in precisely the place where the Baptist’s head had been buried. Deciding to build himself a cell, he dug deep and found an earthen pot containing a head which, it was revealed to him secretly, was that of the Baptist. He venerated it and re-buried it in the same place. By God’s providence, that wonder-working head went from hand to hand, disappearing into the darkness of forgetfulness and then being once more revealed, until it was finally taken to Constantinople in the middle of the 9th century, in the time of Patriarch Ignatius and the God-fearing Empress Theodora, mother of Michael and wife of Theophilus. Many miracles were performed by the head of the Forerunner. It is important and interesting to note that, while he was alive, John did not work a single miracle (Jn. 10:41), but to his relics was given the blessed power of working miracles.
May 25th: The Third Finding of the Head of St John the Baptist.
In the eighth century, during a period of fierce iconoclasm, the head of St John the Baptist was taken to Comana, the place of St John Chrysostom’s exile. When the iconoclast persecution ended in 850, in the time of the Emperor Michael and Patriarch Ignatius, the honored head of St John was taken to Constantinople and placed in the church at the imperial court.
The above information was taken from The Prologue from Ochrid, Lives of the Saints and Homilies for Every Day in the Year by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich, Lazarica Press, Birmingham England. The complete work is available online at the Serbian Orthodox website
If you have reached this page through a search engine, click here for the St. John home page.