Holy Resurrection Byzantine Catholic Mission

THE BEHEADING OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST: AUGUST 29

In addition to the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist on June 24, the Church since the fourth century has commemorated the martyrdom of Christ’s Forerunner. The story of the saint’s death is among the most dramatic narratives in Holy Scripture. All three synoptic writers refer to it. St. Mark goes into the greatest detail. (Mk. 6:14-29) Matthew provides the text from which the Gospel of the feast is taken (14:1-12): St. Luke is the briefest. (Lk. 3:19-20, 9:7-9)

Herod Antipas, the ambitious but weak ruler of most of Palestine, fell in love with Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, and took her for his wife; thus, breaking the Jewish law against levirate marriage. John the Baptist fearlessly reprimanded the king for his adulterous union saying, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” (Mk. 6:18) At first, Herod was afraid to harm the great prophet; but later, at the instigation of Herodias, he imprisoned him in the fortress of Machaerus. He wavered back and forth in his resolve on what to do with John, and, at times, had even wanted to release him.

“But Herodias laid snares for him, and would have liked to put him to death.” (Mk. 6:19) Her chance came at the birthday feast which Herod gave for the princesses, tribunes and chief men of Galilee. After Herodias’ own daughter completed a dance for Herod and his guests, Herod said to the girl, “Ask of me what you will, and I will give it to you.” He even swore to her, “Whatever you ask, I will give you, even though it be the half of my kingdom.” (Mk. 6:21-23)

Advised by her revengeful mother, she asked for the head of John the Baptist. Herod had not anticipated such a request. The Gospel says, “He was struck sad.” But nonetheless, he complied with it “because of his oath and his guests.” He sent the executioner to the prison to behead the man of God. The Gospel tells nothing further about the abasement of the holy head, but legend states that the adulteress was bent on keeping in her possession the tongue of him who did not spare her guilt.

The liturgy describes this tragic end of the Forerunner. St. John Damascene in his sticheras tells in brief the story of the feast: “As the birthday of the impudent Herod was being kept, the object of the dissolute dancer’s oath was achieved: first, the head of the Forerunner was cut off and offered on a platter as food for those reclining. What a loathsome banquet, replete with wickedness and horrible murder!”

According to a creditable tradition, the body of St. John was buried by his disciples in Samaria, outside the borders of Herod’s tetrarch and under the jurisdiction of the Roman governor. In 362 A.D., pagans desecrated the grave and burned his remains. Only a small portion of his relics was saved by monks and carried to Alexandria, where St. Athanasius deposited the remains in his church. The saint’s head, however, is venerated at various places. In fact, in regard to the head there are two quite different accounts.

One account, given by Sozomen, is that St. John’s head had been found in Jerusalem in the possession of monks belonging to a Macedonian sect. They guarded the holy relic until the reign of Theodosius (379-395), who brought it to Hebdomen, a suburb of Constantinople, where he ordered a church to be erected in honor of the saint. The Paschal Chronicle makes mention of this translation of the relic in 391 A.D.

In another traditional account of which Rufinus speaks in his Ecclesiastical History, the head was brought from Machaerus to Jerusalem where it was buried. In the time of Constantine, it was taken to Emesa and hidden in a cave. Here, it was discovered by a priest named Marcellus, the superior of a local monastery, who was acting in response to a series of dreams. Marcellus informed Bishop Uranius of Emesa of his discovery, and the bishop solemnly removed the relic on February 24, 452 A.D. and placed it in his cathedral.

There are actually three separate findings of the head of St. John recorded in various traditions. Each of these is commemorated in the Byzantine Rite by a special holy day: on February 24, we celebrate the first and second finding, and on May 24,the third finding is celebrated.

Apart from the Mother of God, there is no other saint who is honored by more feast days than St. John the Baptist.