Troparion in Tone 4
Prophet and Forerunner of the coming of Christ,
although we cannot praise you worthily,
we honor you in love at your nativity,
for by it you ended your father's silence
and your mother's barrenness,
proclaiming to the world the incarnation of the Son of God!
Kontakion - Tone 3
Today the formerly barren woman gives birth to Christıs
Forerunner,
who is the fulfillment of every prophecy; for in the Jordan,
when he laid his hand on the One foretold by the prophets,
he was revealed as Prophet, Herald, and Forerunner of God the Word.
Nativity of John the Holy Forerunner & Baptist
of the Lord The Gospel (Luke. 1: 5) relates that the righteous
parents of St John the Baptist, the Priest Zachariah and Elizabeth, lived in
the ancient city of Hebron. They reached old age without having children,
since Elizabeth was barren. Once, St Zachariah was serving in the Temple at
Jerusalem and saw the Archangel Gabriel, standing on the right side of the
altar of incense. He predicted that St Zachariah would father a son, who
would announce the Savior, the Messiah, awaited by the Old Testament Church.
Zachariah was troubled, and fear fell upon him. He had doubts that in old
age it was possible to have a son, and he asked for a sign. It was given to
him, and it was also a chastisement for his unbelief. Zachariah was struck
speechless until the time of the fulfillment of the archangel's words.
St Elizabeth came to be with child, and fearing
derision at being pregnant so late in life, she kept it secret for five
months. Then her relative, the Virgin Mary, came to share with her Her own
joy. Elizabeth, "filled with the Holy Spirit," was the first to greet the
Virgin Mary as the Mother of God. St John leaped in his mother's womb at the
visit of the Most Holy Virgin Mary and the Son of God incarnate within Her.
Soon St Elizabeth gave birth to a son, and all the
relatives and acquaintances rejoiced together with her. On the eighth day,
in accordance with the Law of Moses, he was circumcised and was called John.
Everyone was amazed, since no one in the family had this name. When they
asked St Zachariah about this, he motioned for a tablet and wrote on it:
"His name is John." Immediately his tongue was loosed, and St Zachariah
glorified God. He also prophesied about the Coming into the world of the
Messiah, and of his own son John, the Forerunner of the Lord (Luke. 1:
68-79).
After the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ and the
worship of the shepherds and the Magi, wicked king Herod gave orders to kill
all male infants. Hearing about this, St Elizabeth fled into the wilderness
and hid in a cave. St Zachariah was at Jerusalem and was doing his priestly
service in the Temple. Herod sent soldiers to him to find out the abode of
the infant John and his mother. Zachariah answered that their whereabouts
were unknown to him, and he was killed right there in the Temple. Righteous
Elizabeth continued to live in the wilderness with her son and she died
there. The child John, protected by an angel, dwelt in the wilderness until
the time when he came preaching repentance, and was accounted worthy to
baptize the Lord.
The
Holy Glorious Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist John
Troparion
in Tone 2
The memory of the righteous is celebrated with hymns of praise,
but the Lordıs testimony is sufficient for you, O Forerunner.
You were shown in truth to be the most honorable of the prophets,
for you were deemed worthy to baptize in the streams of the Jordan Him whom
they foretold.
Therefore, having suffered for the truth with joy,
you proclaimed to those in hell God who appeared in the flesh,
who takes away the sin of the world, and grants us great mercy.
Kontakion
in Tone 5
The glorious beheading of the Forerunner,
became an act of divine dispensation,
for he preached to those in hell the coming of the Savior.
Let Herodias lament, for she entreated lawless murder,
loving not the law of God, nor eternal life,
but that which is false and temporal.
The
Evangelists Matthew (Mt 14:1-12) and Mark (Mk 6:14-29) provide accounts
about the martyric end of John the Baptist in the year 32 after the Birth of
Christ.
Following the Baptism of the Lord, St. John the
Baptist was locked up in prison by Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch (ruler of one
fourth of the Holy Land) and governor of Galilee. (After the death of king
Herod the Great, the Romans divided the territory of Palestine into four
parts, and put a governor in charge of each part. Herod Antipas received
Galilee from the emperor Augustus).
The Beheading of
Saint John the Baptist & Forerunner
The prophet of God John openly denounced Herod for
having left his lawful wife, the daughter of the Arabian king Aretas, and
then instead cohabiting with Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip (Luke
3:19-20). On his birthday, Herod made a feast for dignitaries, the elders
and a thousand chief citizens. Salome, the daughter of Herod, danced before
the guests and charmed Herod. In gratitude to the girl, he swore to give her
whatever she would ask, up to half his kingdom.
The vile girl on the advice of her wicked mother
Herodias asked that she be given the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
Herod became apprehensive, for he feared the wrath of God for the murder of
a prophet, whom earlier he had heeded. He also feared the people, who loved
the holy Forerunner. But because of the guests and his careless oath, he
gave orders to cut off the head of St. John and to give it to Salome.
According to Tradition, the mouth of the dead preacher
of repentance once more opened and proclaimed: "Herod, you should not have
the wife of your brother Philip." Salome took the platter with the head of
St. John and gave it to her mother. The frenzied Herodias repeatedly stabbed
the tongue of the prophet with a needle and buried his holy head in a
unclean place. But the pious Joanna, wife of Herod's steward Chuza, buried
the head of John the Baptist in an earthen vessel on the Mount of Olives,
where Herod had a parcel of land. (The Uncovering of the Venerable Head is
celebrated (February 24). The holy body of John the Baptist was taken that
night by his disciples and buried at Sebastia, there where the wicked deed
had been done.
After the murder of St. John the Baptist, Herod
continued to govern for a certain time. Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea,
later sent Jesus Christ to him, Whom he mocked (Luke 23:7-12).
The judgment of God came upon Herod, Herodias and
Salome, even during their earthly life. Salome, crossing the River Sikoris
in winter, fell through the ice. The ice gave way in such a way that her
body was in the water, but her head was trapped above the ice. It was
similar to how she once had danced with her feet upon the ground, but now
she flailed helplessly in the icy water. Thus she was trapped until that
time when the sharp ice cut through her neck.
Her corpse was not found, but they brought the head to
Herod and Herodias, as once they had brought them the head of St. John the
Baptist. The Arab king Aretas, in revenge for the disrespect shown his
daughter, made war against Herod. The defeated Herod suffered the wrath of
the Roman emperor Caius Caligua (37-41) and was exiled with Herodias first
to Gaul, and then to Spain.
The Beheading of St. John the Baptist, a Feast day
established by the Church, is also a strict fast day because of the grief of
Christians at the violent death of the saint. In some Orthodox cultures
pious people will not eat food from a flat plate, use a knife, or eat food
that is round in shape on this day.
Today the Church makes remembrance of Orthodox
soldiers killed on the field of battle, as established in 1769 at the time
of Russia's war with the Turks and the Poles.
The Third Discovery of the Venerable Head of the
Holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John occurred in about the year 850.
The head of Saint John the Forerunner was found in the city of
Emesia during a time of unrest at Constantinople connected with the exile of
Saint John Chrysostom.
It was transferred to Komana during the Saracen raids
(about 820-820) and it was hidden in the ground during a period of
iconoclastic persecution. When the veneration of icons was restored,
Patriarch Ignatius (847-857) saw in a vision the place where the head of
Saint John the Forerunner was hidden. The patriarch communicated this to the
emperor, who sent a delegation to Komana. There the head was found a third
time around the year 850.
Afterwards the head was again transferred to
Constantinople, and here on May 25 it was placed in a church at the court.
Part of the head is on Mt. Athos. The Third Discovery of the Head of John
the Baptist is commemorated on May 25.
