St. John the Baptist

St. John the Baptist is the forerunner of Jesus Christ, the last and greatest of the prophets, of whom the Lord himself said that among those born of women none had arisen greater. The Gospel of Luke recounts his origins: the son of the priest Zechariah and of Elizabeth, kinswoman of the Virgin Mary, his birth was announced by the archangel Gabriel and greeted by his father's canticle, the Benedictus. The Church celebrates his nativity on June 24 — six months before Christmas — one of only three birthdays on the liturgical calendar, alongside those of Christ and his Mother. John appeared in the Judean wilderness around the year 27, clothed in camel's hair, living on locusts and wild honey, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Crowds streamed to him at the Jordan River, where he baptized Jesus and bore witness to him as "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." His preaching is attested not only by all four Gospels but by the Jewish historian Josephus, making him one of the best-documented figures of the New Testament era. True to his own words — "He must increase; I must decrease" — he pointed his disciples away from himself and toward Christ. His fearlessness cost him his life. For publicly rebuking the tetrarch Herod Antipas over his unlawful union with Herodias, John was imprisoned — at the fortress of Machaerus east of the Dead Sea, according to Josephus — and beheaded at the request of Herodias's daughter, a martyrdom the Church commemorates on August 29, the Memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist. Veneration of John is ancient and universal, in the East under his title "the Forerunner." Churches claiming his relics have multiplied since antiquity — the head is claimed by, among others, the church of San Silvestro in Capite in Rome, Amiens Cathedral in France, and the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus — claims tradition records but history cannot verify. He is a patron of baptism and of converts, patron of Jordan, where the baptism site at Bethany beyond the Jordan draws pilgrims today, and patron of many places and peoples from French Canada to Puerto Rico. In every age the Church holds him up as the model witness: the friend of the Bridegroom whose whole life pointed to Christ.