| Saint John the Baptist Feastday June 24 ( feast of the Beheading - August 31 ) 
"The Lord has called me by my name from the womb of my mother and He has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His Hand He has prot4ected me, and has made me as a chosen arrow." (Isa.49:1-2) A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight His paths. The commemoration of the Nativity of the Percursor of Christ is one of the most ancient festivals of the Church. Its date, six months before Christmas, is universally accepted by all Churches. 
...And the babe leapt in the womb.. Elizabeth's time was fulfilled that she should be delivered, and she brought forth a son. And her neighbor's and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had magnified His mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her. And it came to pass on the eighth day, that they came to circumcize the child, and they were going to call him by his father's name, Zachary. And his mother answered and said, "Not so, but he shall be called John." JOHN THE BAPTIST ( 1st century ).
Son of Zachary, a priest of the Temple
in Jerusalem, and Elizabeth, a kins-
woman of Mary who visited her, he was probably born at Ain-Karim southwest
of Jerusalem after the angel Gabriel had
told Zachary that his wife would bear a
child even though she was an old
woman. He lived as a hermit in the des-ert of Judea until about A.D.27, when he was thirty, he began to preach on the banks of the Jordan against the evils of the times and called men to penance and
baptism "for the kingdom of heaven is
close at hand." He attracted large crowds, and when Christ came to him John recognized him as the Messiah and baptized him, saying, "It is I who need
baptism from you" (Matt. 3:14). When Christ left to preach in Galilee, John
continued preaching in the Jordan Valley. Fearful of his great power with the
people, Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Perea
and Galilee, had him arrested and im-
prisoned at Machaerus Fortress on the
Dead Sea when John denounced his
adulterous and incestuous marriage with
Herodias, wife of his half brother Philip.
John was beheaded at the request of
Salome, daughter of Herodias, who
asked for his head at the instigation of
her mother.
John inspired many of his followers to follow Christ when he designated him "the lamb of God," among them Andrew and John, who came to
know Christ through John's preaching.
John is presented in the New Testament
as the last of the Old Testament prophets and the precursor of the Messiah.
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