Saint John the Baptist

John was the son of the priest Zachary and of Elizabeth, the kinswoman of the Virgin Mary. His birth was foretold by the angel Gabriel to his elderly father in the Temple, and he leapt in his mother’s womb when Mary came to visit (Luke 1). His birth is one of the few, with those of Christ and Our Lady, that the Church celebrates with a feast, on 24 June.

He grew up in the desert and came out of it clothed in camel’s hair, eating locusts and wild honey, to preach by the Jordan: “Do penance: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Crowds came to be baptized by him. When Jesus came, John tried to refuse him, but baptized him, and saw the Spirit descend like a dove (Matthew 3). The next day he pointed Jesus out to his own disciples: “Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1). Some of them, Andrew among them, left John to follow Christ. “He must increase,” John said, “but I must decrease” (John 3).

He told King Herod Antipas that it was not lawful for him to have his brother’s wife, Herodias, and Herod imprisoned him. At a birthday banquet Herodias’s daughter danced for the king, asked for John’s head on a dish, and received it (Mark 6). The Church remembers his martyrdom on 29 August.

Jesus said of him, “Amen I say to you, there hath not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11).