The beheading is the murder of John the Baptist. A terrible crime, an innocent death. Why do Christians celebrate this day?
After all, a holiday is a celebration, but what is it, it would seem, a celebration? A person, and even what kind of person: the greatest, according to the Savior, of all the prophets (Matt. 11; 11; Luke 7; 28) - cut off his head ...
His martyrdom is described in the Gospels of Matthew (Matthew 14: 1-12) and Mark (Mark 6: 14-29).
Surely the episode of the martyrdom of John the Baptist, described in the Gospel, is known to many.
The king had a legal wife, the daughter of the Arabian king Arefa. Herod left her and cohabited with Herodias, the wife of his brother. The Prophet John repeatedly denounced him, but the king did not dare to harm him, as he venerated John the Baptist as a prophet and was afraid of the people's anger.
On his birthday, Herod threw a rich feast. Many guests gathered. Tables were bursting with exquisite dishes and expensive wines, actors and dancers who came were delighted. At the feast, Salome, the daughter of Herodias, danced in front of the guests. She so pleased Herod with this that he swore before the guests to give her whatever she asked. Salome went to her mother for advice.
“Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter,” the girl said when she returned to the guests.
Herod was saddened: he was afraid of the wrath of God for the murder of the prophet, but he could not break a careless oath.
They cut off the head of St. John the Baptist and gave it to Salome.
Beheading (beheading) of John the Baptist (Caravaggio. 1608)
The evil Herodias pierced the tongue of the prophet with a pin and buried her head in an unclean place. But Joanna, the wife of the royal housekeeper Khuza, secretly took the holy head, put it in a vessel and buried it on the Mount of Olives, in one of Herod's estates. The body of st. John the Baptist was taken by his disciples and buried him.
It is believed that even after his death, John was the Forerunner of the Lord, since before His descent the soul of the prophet appeared in hell and informed the souls of the forefathers who were there that the Savior was soon to come.
He withstood his test to the end, did not hesitate and remained faithful to God.
The life of Herod and Herodias was not happy and calm. They both feared that John might rise from the dead. Herodias even ordered to bury the head of the prophet separately from the body - just in case. How much Herod feared this is evidenced by the fact that when Jesus Christ began to preach, the king was horrified and must have remembered the murder committed by his order and said: “This is John the Baptist; he rose from the dead, and therefore miracles are done to him. "
The judgment of God took place over Herod, Herodias and Salome during their earthly life. Salome, crossing the Sikoris River in winter, fell through the ice. The ice squeezed her so that her body hung in the water, and her head was over the ice. Just as she once danced with her feet on the ground, now, like a dancer, she made helpless movements in the icy water. So she hung until the sharp ice cut her neck. Her corpse was not found, but the head was brought to Herod and Herodias, as they once brought them the head of St. John the Baptist. The Arabian king Aref, in revenge for the dishonor of his daughter, moved an army against Herod. Having suffered defeat, Herod was subjected to the wrath of the Roman emperor Caius Caligula and was exiled together with Herodias to imprisonment in Gaul, and then to Spain. There they were swallowed up by the open earth.
Outwardly, the death of John the Baptist is the triumph of vice over righteousness: behold, he is dead, and his enemies are alive and triumphant ... But this triumph is illusory, because of the insensibility of the "victors" of their destruction alive. In fact, the death of the last Old Testament prophet was a triumph of the truth of God, which did not neglect either the poor or the noble, “did not bend under the changing world”, did not know “double standards” and did not subservience to “common sense,” which persistently encourages us to reckon with power and wealth.
Orthodox Christians spend the Day of the Beheading of the Head of the Forerunner of Christ John in strict fasting, even fish and dairy products are excluded from the diet. Strict fasting is established as an expression of grief over the violent death of the great prophet. A time of concentration for all believers.
On this day, it is not customary to have fun, arrange festivities and feasts, because people with sadness and sadness remember everyone who suffered for the truth.
John the Baptist - Angel of the Lord
John the Baptist is called the Angel of the Lord and is often depicted on icons with wings. The Savior himself said about the Baptist that he is not only a prophet, but also a greater prophet - the Angel of the Lord: “ For he is the one about whom it is written: behold, I send my angel before you, who will prepare your way before you.”(Matthew 11:10). The Holy Forerunner is truly the first Angel in the flesh. Through his life, of all mortal people, he came closest to the angelic life and became like the angel of heaven.
How did Saint John become like an angel? Saint Nicholas of Serbia (Velimirovich) notes, first, by his obedience to God; secondly, by its freedom from the world; and thirdly, by his carelessness about his bodily life.
Angels are totally obedient to God. And Saint John was completely obedient to God from his very infancy. He completely surrendered to God and relied on God in everything.
In addition, John was like the angels of heaven and his freedom from the world and people. The world for him was dust, which turns green, then blackens, but always remains dust. For him, people were a scattered flock that had lost sight of their shepherd. John, as an angel of God, did not in the least adhere to the world and did not have the slightest fear of the world. He does not distinguish people either by dress, or by nobility, or by power, or by learning, or by wealth, or by age - he distinguishes them only by the properties of their soul. His eyes do not see bodily people, but naked human souls, which for other eyes are hidden under the mask of a body. Only the angels of God have such freedom from the world and people.
In addition, John became likened to the angels and the care of his bodily life. Angels are not worried about what to eat, what to drink and what to wear. Serving God, they know that God will feed them, and drink, and clothe them. John ate acridae (the tops of some desert plants) and wild honey, his spirit was not disturbed by the concerns of this world. And it is not said that he ever complained of hunger or thirst. It was not akrid and wild honey that nourished him, but the power of God, given to the faithful and obedient servant of God through akrid and wild honey. And John did not care about housing and clothing. His dwelling was the desert, but he wore a garment of camel hair and a leather belt on his loins. Saint John was free from all bodily care. All his worries were about the soul, and the will of God was the only law and the ruler of his soul. In this he became like the heavenly angels.
That is why they call him an Angel.
John the Baptist - Forerunner and in Hell
The Holy Forerunner received the testimony of the Lord that he was the greatest of those born by wives, also because he became the first New Testament martyr among all the holy martyrs.
But why did the all-good God allow the great atrocity to be committed 2,000 years ago, and why did not the Lord Jesus Christ resurrect Saint John the Baptist? Because the Forerunner was supposed to become the Forerunner in hell, the kingdom of death, where the souls of all people departed from Adam before the coming of the Savior to this world, in order to proclaim the righteous who died with the hope of redemption that the coming of the Savior is near, Who will crush the gates of hell with the Cross.
About the holiday
Day of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist is one of those days church calendar that stand out as festive, albeit mournful. On this day, a fast is established to worthily honor the memory of the great fasting man and hermit. At the same time, this one-day fast has the goal of reminding about the harmful consequences of the passion of intemperance.
Regarding the feast of the Beheading of the Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John, there are a lot of superstitions that have nothing to do with the essence of the revered event. For example, that on this day you cannot put anything round on the table (no dishes, no plates), you cannot eat round food (that is, potatoes, onions, apples, watermelons), use chopping and cutting objects. Of course, these superstitions spread (and are still spreading sometimes) among people of little church and have no basis in the traditions of the Church regarding the day of the celebration of the Beheading of John the Baptist.
Troparion, voice 2
The memory of the righteous with praises, the testimony of the Lord, the Forerunner, is in your favor: you have shown that you are truly afraid of the most honest prophets, as if you were honored with the Preached in the streams of baptism. In the same place, having suffered for the truth, rejoicing, you preached the good news to those in the hell of God in flesh, taking away the sin of the world and giving you great mercy.
Kontakion, voice 5
The glorious forerunner beheading, seeing was a kind of Divine, and for those in hell, the Savior's preaching of the coming; Yes, and weeps for Herodia, asking for the lawless murder: not the law of God, nor love the living age, but pretense, temporary.
Exaltation
We magnify thee, John the Baptist of the Savior, and we honor all your honest heads, beheading.
Prayer to Saint John the Baptist
The Baptist of Christ, a preacher of repentance, repenting not to contempt me, but copulating with the Heavenly soldiers, praying to the Lord for me unworthy, despondent, weak and sad, who has fallen into many troubles, burdened by stormy thoughts of my mind: I am not evil deeds having an end to sinful custom, I am nailed to my mind by an earthly thing: what I create, we do not know. And to whom shall I resort, may my soul be saved? only to you, Saint John, the same name of grace, as for the Lord, according to the Theotokos, there is more to be born of all, for you were honored to touch the top of the King Christ, who takes away the sins of the world, the Lamb of God. Pray for him for my sinful soul, so from now on, at the first ten o'clock, I will bear a good burden and receive a bribe with the latter. To her, the Baptist of Christ, the honest Forerunner, the extreme Prophet, the first in grace of the martyr, the fasting and the hermits, the mentor, the purity of the teacher and the close friend of Christ, I pray thee, I come running to you: do not take me away from your intercession, but revolt me who have fallen by many sins; Renew my soul with repentance, as if by a second baptism, before both you were the chief: with baptism wash away the ancestral sin, but with repentance cleanse which is a bad deed; Cleanse me with the sins of the defiled one and compel me to bring in, for me nothing bad enters into the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.
11 sep-teab-rya Church of Holidays-nu-et Usek-no-ve-tion of the head-you Pro-ro-ka, Pred-te-chi and Cross-sti-te-la Gos-pod-nya Ioan- on. Day of mu-che-no-che-death "ve-li-chai-she-go from born-d-n-na-mi" opi-san evan-ge-li-st-mi Mat-fe -em () and Mark-com (). What happened to Iro-dom after all? Where does the head of the saint go this day? Why to fast on this day means to become free from the slavery of pleasure?
After the death of Iro-da Ve-li-ko-go, the Romans in de li-li ter-ri-to-riu Pa-les-sti-ny on four-you-re parts, meaning in each of them the right-to-see-te-la from their sta-len-niks. Herod An-ti-pa received from im-pe-ra-to-ra Av-gu-sta Ga-li-ley to his control. John the Baptist ob-li-chal Chet-ve-ro-power-ni-ka is that he, having left his lawful wife (daughter of araviy-sko-go -rya Are-phy), unconditionally co-living with Iro-di-a-doy, the same of his own brother Philip-pa. For this, Herod hooked the saint in the dark. Some is-to-ri-ki assert that Herod did not do this so much because of the evil on John of the Cross, how much something that wished to protect him from his beloved, knowing her vengeful disposition. Iro-di-a-yes would-la through-you-tea-but angry at the pro-ro-ka.
The truncation of the head of John the Pred-te-chi was carried out during the feast in honor of the day of the birth of Iro-da, on which sut-va-li vel-mo-zhi, old-rei-shi-ny and you-sya-che-na-chal-ni-ki. The daughter of Iro-di-a-dy Sa-lo-miya (Sa-lo-meya) tan-tse-va-la before go-sty-mi, ras-po-lo-is alive by that very be Iro-yes, who-ry swore to give her everything that she didn’t ask for - even if it’s the same state. According to his-mother-te-ri Iro-di-a-dy, who-swarm had the opportunity to take revenge on Saint John well, and all-where from-ba-vit-Xia from reproaches and ob-li-che-niy, Sa-lo-meya in-pro-forces to give her the head of John-on-the-Cross -te-la and bring it to the dish. Herod was embarrassed, because he was afraid of the wrath of God for the murder of the pro-ro-ka, as well as the native The pre-te-cha was lyu-bim zhi-te-la-mi Ga-li-lei. At the same time, it is known from the Gospel that Herod in many respects heard Saint John and understood his words - but, as St. ... John Evil-to-mouth, the sovereign "the kingdom was over the pleasure of pleasure, rather, was the servant of pleasure." Wickedly-mouth-la-ha-e, that, most likely of all, the oath-howl Herod covered himself, as a blah-seeming pre-lo-gom - on the very the same de-le, the true reason for his approach was the fear of losing Iro-di-a-du.
And he keeps his oath, given in the presence of you-with-guests: he gives a co-answer with -kaz - and pro-ex-go-dit Usek-no-ve-tion of the head of John-on the Pred-te-chi. Su-well-is-there is a gift, according to the mouth of the dead head-you pro-ro-ka, as before, pro-long whether to ob-d-ch-la-vi-te-la: "Herod, you should not have the same Philip, your brother." After this, Sa-lo-miya, in furiousness, used-ko-lo-la language pro-ro-ka needle and for-ko-pa-la to the head of the Cross-sti-te-la in unclean place.
Herod continued to rule for some time after Usek-no-ve-nia of the head of John Pred-te-chi - Evangelical is-to-riya -de-ts-is that Pon-ty Pi-lat sent to him the connection of Jesus Christ ().
Dal-nei-shaya fate-ba Iro-da and Iro-di-a-dy lay in the sadness. Lub-no-ki bo-I-hoped that St.John would rise from the dead, and Herod, when he began to tell Jesus Christ, was horrified -nul-sya this-mu, ska-zav: “this is John the Baptist; he resurrected from the dead, and in that way chu-de-sa de la-yut-Xia them. "
After the passage of time after the Usek-no-ve-nia of the head of John Pred-te-chi, Sa-lo-miya, ne-re-go-dya zi-my ice the river Si-ko-rice, pro-wa-li-las under the water and the ice handed it over in such a way that the go-lo-va na-ho-di-las on-top-no-sti, and body - in ice-dy-noy water. She was in vain, but she tried to get out, but it didn’t work out for her - so she lasted until then, until the sharp gla -re-for-whether her neck. The body of Sa-lo-mi did not go, but the go-lo-woo brought Iro-do with Iro-di-a-doy, like-but-mo, like sometime when -whether to the head-vu John-na Pred-te-chi. The beheading of the head of John the Predict-te-chi was fired at and on the fate of Iro-da - in the off-place for a devil stee his own do-che-ri, the Arabian king Are-fa sent his troops against him. Herod ter-sang in-ra-ze-nie and for this reason rage-raged the Roman im-pe-ra-to-ra Ka-li-gu-lu. He was co-sent together with Iro-di-a-doy for something to Gaul, and then to Isa-pa-nia.
After the Usek-no-ve-nia of the head of John the Pred-te-chi, his disciples-ki rowed the body of the holy one in Sa-maryan-go -ro-de Se-va-sti. The Holy Head John-on-the-Cross-te-la was-la-nay-de-na and in-gre-be-na in the co-su-de on the Yele-on-sky go-re. After-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-v-d-v-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-r-z: one in-motion-nick ko-pal ditch for os-no-va -ya temple, found the saint-you-nyu and kept it with him. And before his death, fearing that saint-you-nya might be in-ru-g-na, he hid her in the ground in the same place , where and about-na-ru-lived.
In 452, the pro-rock indicated in the vi-de-nii the place where his head was covered - and she was again ob-re-te-na, after that it was transferred to Emes-su, then to Kon-stan-ti-no-pol. In the memory of this, another holiday is established, inextricably linked with the chi - about-re-te-nie of his honest head-you. Feast of the first and second chu-des-no-go ob-re-te-niya from-me-cha-et-Xia Tser-ko-view on March 8 (February 24- ra-la old-ro-th style).
At the time of the iko-no-bor-che-skikh go-not-ni-va-la you-ve-ze-na in Ko-man-ny (Ab-ha-ziya), from the West -nom as a place of exile and end of St. John-na Evil-to-mouth, and hide-ta-na in the earth. After the resurrection of the iko-no-after-reading of St. pat-ri-ar-hu Ig-na-tiyu no-ch'yu at the time of mo-lit-you were-lo pointed out the place where the honorable head is kept. That-kim-ra-zom saint-you-nya was-la about-re-te-na again. This event is celebrated on June 7 (May 25) as the Third Ob-re-te-tion of the head of St. Ioan-na Pred-te-chi
Strictly a hundred day
Truncate the head of St. Ioan-na Pred-te-chi from-me-cha-et-sya 11 sep-teab-rya (29 aug-g-hundred). Mit-ro-po-lit Su-rozh-skiy An-to-niy in one of the pro-po-ve-dei so tract-tu-e the fact that Usek-no-ve-nie head-you are th-th (that is, violent murder) - is-la-e-sya-but-no-one:
“Today we celebrate the day of Usek-no-ve-nia of the head of John the Pre-te-chi ... no-mother as joy, but it also means "to remain without de-la", and without de-la, you can remain, for something that will overwhelm -shu-joy and already de-la is no longer up to the usual things, but maybe it happens because of the fact that the hands fell from grief or from horror- sa. And here is such a day-long holiday: what are you taking in front of the face of something that we have heard of this day in the Evangelical -liya? "
Therefore, on the day of Usek-no-ve-nia, a strict fast is foreseen, at the time of something-ro-go it is not consumed in writing me -so, milk products-you, fish-ba. “We will not be with-general-no-ka-mi-in-ugo-diya Iro-da”, - go-rit Ti-pi-kon. The charter is clear, how is it right to relate to this holiday:
“Boo-dem eat me-so or some other exquisite food? And the Baptist lived in a waterless and grassless wilderness - he did not eat bread, he did not have any other food. Wee-but do we drink? And he did not drink any wine or any other drink of the world. His hundred-and-bed and his bed were-la-earth, he tasted only ak-ri-dy ni-kam - a genus of edible sa-ran-chi) and wild honey. Instead of a hundred cha-shi - pri-pot-no water, te-ku-shi from the stone. That is why we will spend this day in post and prayer. "
Fasting on the day of Usek-no-ve-nia of the head-you John-on Pred-te-chi usta-nov-len, ve-ro-yat-most of all, together with the holiday, for- cha-lo ko-to-ro-go from-but-sit-Xia to the first time-me-us of the christi-an-sky Church. The antiquity of a hundred on this day is confirmed by the mouth of the Jeru-sa-lim-sko-th mon-na-st-rya St. Sav-you Osvyaschen-no-go. It says that the fast on the day of Usek-no-ve-nia of the head of John the Pred-te-chi “for mi ".
Do not eat circle-loe - sue-ve-rie
Relatively-si-tel-but-ni-ka Usek-no-ve-nia head-you Pro-ro-ka, Pred-te-chi and Cross-sti-te-la Gos-pod-nya Ioan- on the essence of the sue-beliefs, not having a relation to the essence in-chi-ta-e-my-th-th life ... For example, that on this day it is impossible to put on the table no-thing round-lo-go (no dishes, no ta-re-lok), you cannot eat food round-lo forms (that is - kar-to-fel, onion, yab-lo-ki, ar-bu-zy), use-to-use ru-by-by and cut you. For example, according to the white-Russian-by-faith, connected with the day of Usek-no-ve-nia of the head of John the Pred-te-chi, in the course of a go-da go-lo-va saintly, almost pri-ras-ta-it-back-but, but how only people on this day begin-nut re -to eat bread - again from-pa-children. In the southern Slavs, on the day of Usek-no-ve-nia, the head of John Pred-te-chi was strictly con-sno-dal-sya-pret on red fruits and pit-ki, since it was believed that "this is the blood of St. John." Therefore, on this day, they did not eat black vi-no-gra-da, po-mi-do-ditch and red pepper.
Ra-zu-me-e-sya, these super-beliefs of ras-pro-country-nyal-were (and sometimes-ra-pro-country-nya-are-sya sometimes still) amid-de- dei small-tserkov-ny and do not have any os-no-va-nia in tra-di-tsi-yakh Tserk-vi from-no-si-tel-but of the day id-no-va-nia Usek-no-ve-nia of the head of John the Pred-te-chi.
Where is the head of St. Ioan-na Pred-te-chi
In the world of existence, there are several saints that are not directly connected with the life John-na Pred-te-chi. These are parts of the head-you of St. John-on-the-Cross: the front part of the head is in the skom ka-fed-ral-nom so-bo-re Pre-saint Bo-go-ro-di-tsy in go-ro-de Amie-na (Italy), part of the head-you temple-nit- sya in the Lav-re of the saint-te-la Afa-na-sia Ve-li-ko-go on Athos, and the coffin-no-tsa pro-ro-ka with part of its head-you dit in the mosque Omai-i-dov in Da-mas-ke. At the site of the ob-re-te-nia, the head-you of John-on-the-cross-te-la - Hele-on, the Go-ry of the Non-seeding in Jeru-sa-li-me - on ter -ri-to-rii rus-sko Spa-so-Voz-not-sen-sko-mo-na-st-rya-str-e-na cha-sov-nya in memory of this co-existence, and the place of the ob-re-te-niya is from-me-but-de-ni-em in the mo-za-ich-n-lu.
In Moscow, parts of St. Ioan-na Pred-te-chi na-ho-dyat-Xia in several temples. For example, in the Ioan-no-Pred-te-chen-feminine mo-na-st-re and the temple of the Vla-di-mir-i-kon of God-zhi-ma-te -ri in Vi-no-gra-do-in.
Pod-go-to-vil: Dmitry Bo-ri-sov
Beheading of John the Baptist- a holiday that Orthodox Church honors and celebrates September 11 (August 29 old style).
The Holy Church honors John the Forerunner above all the saints after the Mother of God.
The beheading of John the Baptist: how it was
The Gospels of Matthew (Matthew 14: 1-12) and Mark (Mark 6: 14-29) narrate about the martyrdom of the Forerunner of the Lord in the year 32 after the Nativity of Christ. However, the Holy Tradition of the Apostolic Church has preserved some of the details of these events that took place shortly before the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ.
After the death of Herod the Great, the Romans divided the territory of Palestine into four parts and, in each part, appointed their protégé as ruler. Herod Antipas received from Emperor Augustus to rule Galilee. He had a legal wife, the daughter of the Arabian king Arefa. Herod left her and cohabited with Herodias, the wife of his brother. The Prophet John repeatedly denounced him, but the king did not dare to harm him, as he venerated John the Baptist as a prophet and was afraid of the people's anger. Nevertheless, Saint John the Baptist was thrown into prison by King Herod (Luke 3, 19-20).
On his birthday, Herod made a rich feast, at which Salome, the daughter of Herodias, danced in front of the guests. She so pleased Herod with this that he swore before the guests to give her whatever she asked. Salome went to her mother for advice. Herodias taught her daughter to ask for the head of St. John the Baptist. Herod was saddened: he was afraid of the wrath of God for the murder of the prophet, but he could not break a careless oath.
John the Baptist's head was cut off and given to Salome. According to legend, the head continued to denounce Herod and Herodias. Furious Herodias pierced the tongue of the prophet with a pin and buried her head in an unclean place. But Joanna, the wife of the king's steward Khuza, secretly took the holy head, put it in a vessel and buried it on the Mount of Olives, in one of Herod's estates. The body of St. John the Baptist was taken by his disciples and buried.
God's wrath fell upon those who decided to destroy the prophet. Salome crossed the Sikoris River in winter and fell through the ice. She hung her body in the water, and her head was above the ice. Just as she once danced with her feet on the ground, now, like a dancer, she made helpless movements in the icy water. So she hung until the sharp ice cut her neck. Her head, cut off by a sharp ice floe, was brought to Herod and Herodias, as they once brought them the head of John the Baptist, but her body was never found. The Arabian king Aref, in revenge for the dishonor of his daughter - the wife of Herod the four-ruler - moved his troops against the wicked king and defeated him. The Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Caligula (37-41) in anger exiled Herod along with Herodias to prison in Gaul, and then to Spain. There they were swallowed up by the open earth.
The first finding of the head of John the Baptist
Many years after the execution of John the Baptist, when the land in which the vessel with the holy head of the Forerunner rested, became the property of the pious nobleman Innocent, this vessel was found during the construction of the church, Innocent learned about the greatness of the shrine by the miracles and signs that happened during this time. But before his death, fearing that the shrine would not be desecrated by the Gentiles, he again hid it in the same place.
Many years passed, the church built by Innocent fell into disrepair. During the reign of the emperor Constantine the Great, two monks who came to worship in Jerusalem, Saint John the Baptist appeared twice and indicated the location of his venerable head. Having dug up the shrine, the monks put it in a sack of camel wool and went home, but on the way they met an unfamiliar potter, who was entrusted with carrying the precious burden. Then the Forerunner himself appeared to the potter and ordered him to flee from the careless monks along with the burden. In the potter's family, the honest head was kept and passed on from generation to generation in a sealed vessel, until the priest Eustathius, infected with the heresy of Arianism, took possession of it. Using the miraculous power emanating from the head, he seduced many people into heresy. When his blasphemy was revealed, he fled, burying the relic in a cave near Emesa, hoping to later take it back again. But God did not allow this. Pious monks settled in the cave, and a monastery arose.
In 452 the archimandrite of the monastery Marcellus was indicated by Saint John in a vision where his head was hidden, and it was regained. The shrine was transferred to Emessa, and then to Constantinople. The feast of the first and second miraculous finding of the head of John the Baptist is celebrated by the Church on March 8 (February 24, old style).
The third finding of the honest head of the Holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John was around 850. When unrest arose in Constantinople connected with the exile of St. John Chrysostom, the head of St. John the Baptist was carried off to Emesa, and from there, during the Saracens' raid (circa 810-820), to Comana, where it was hidden later, during the iconoclastic times. persecution. After the restoration of the veneration of icons, Patriarch Ignatius (847-857) at night at prayer was indicated the place where the honest chapter was kept. The shrine was found again in the place indicated by the patriarch, around 850. Later, the chapter was again transferred to Constantinople and here on May 25 was placed in the court church, part of the holy chapter is located on Athos. Feast of the third discovery of the head of St. John the Baptist - June 7 (May 25, old style).
In memory of the beheading of St. John the Baptist, the Church established a feast and strict fasting, as an expression of the grief of Christians about the violent death of the great Prophet.
Icons of the Beheading of John the Baptist
Pictures with the plot of the Beheading of John the Baptist
John the Baptist before Herod. Mattia Preti. 1665
Gustav Moreau. Salome
Jacopo da Ponte. Beheading of John the Baptist
Giovanni Batista Tiepolo. Beheading of John the Baptist
Pierre Cecile Puvis de Chavannes. Beheading of John the Baptist. 1869
Revenge of Herodias. Painting by Juan Flandes
The beheading of John the Baptist. Caravaggio. 1608
Salome. Lucas Cranach the Elder. OK. 1530
Guido Reni. Salome with the head of John the Baptist
Prayers for the Feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist
Chants of the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist performed by the choir of the church of St. Nicholas in Kuznetskaya Sloboda (Moscow)
Verse: From the depths I cried to You, Lord, * Lord, hear my voice.
Verse: Let Thy ears be * listening to the voice of my prayer.
On Christmas Day, creating cold Herod, a filthy dancer, the oath is being fulfilled:
Forerunner bo head, cut off, like food, worn on a platter reclining.
Oh, the feast is disgusting, unrepeatable deeds and murders are fulfilled!
But we are the Baptist, as if in those born by wives is great, worthy of honor, we please.
Verse: If the lawlessness is nazrishi, Lord, Lord, who will stand * as you have cleansing.
Oh, the feast, full of blood!
If you did swear, but you didn’t swear for good: I’d better get a lie to get my life, if I’ve already told the head of the Forerunner, cut it off.
But we are the Baptist, as if in those born by wives is great, worthy of honor, we please.
Verse: And for the sake of Thy patience, O Lord, my soul suffer for Thy word * my soul trusts in the Lord.
The dance is a disciple of the all-evil devil, and your head, Forerunner, is taken from you.
Oh, the feast, full of blood!
Better not to swear, Herod is lawless, a lie inside.
If you did swear, but you didn’t swear for good: I’d rather lie to receive my life,
truncate the head of the Forerunner. But we are the Baptist, as if in those born by wives is great, worthy of honor, we please.
Verse: From the guard of the morning to the night, from the guard of the morning * let Israel trust in the Lord.
But we are the Baptist, as if in those born by wives is great, worthy of honor, we please.
Verse: as the Lord has mercy and much deliverance from Him * and that He will deliver Israel from all his iniquities.
It is not befitting, O Herod, to condemn the adultery of an accuser, for the sake of satanicism and incitement to violent fornication by death.
Do not befit the honorable head of a most lawless wife for the sake of an oath of dancing to betray the poor.
Oh, how dare thou commit such a murder!
Why did the nasty dancer not scorch, in the middle of a feast on a platter wearing this?
But we are the Baptist, as if in those born by wives is great, worthy of honor, we please.
Verse: Praise the Lord, all nations * praise Him, all people.
The Baptist is truncated and Herod is confused.
With prayers, Lord, Thy Forerunner, give peace to our souls.
Verse: As if his mercy was established on us * and the truth of the Lord abides forever.
Paki Herodia is mad, Paki is embarrassed.
Oh, the dancing is flattering and the feast with flattery!
The Baptist is truncated and Herod is confused. With prayers, Lord, Thy Forerunner, give peace to our souls.
Sermon of His Beatitude Volodymyr, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine (in Ukrainian)
“There is no fate more majestic or more tragic,” wrote Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh in his sermon on the Beheading of John the Baptist. On September 11, Orthodox Christians remember the New Testament event - the violent death of the great prophet who predicted the coming of the Messiah and baptized the Lord Jesus Christ in the waters of the Jordan River.
Events of the Beheading of John the Baptist
The beheading of the head of the Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John is the full name of the holiday. September 11 (August 29, old style) The Russian Orthodox Church recalls the New Testament events described in the 14th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew and the 6th chapter of the Gospel of Mark.
Saint John the Baptist, who predicted the coming of the Messiah and baptized Jesus Christ in the Jordan River, was imprisoned by the order of King Herod Antipas. Herod at that time ruled in Galilee, and the great prophet denounced the sins and atrocities of him and his entourage. The Tetrarch (that is, one of the four Roman rulers of Judea) was afraid to execute the saint: the people loved him, and Herod was afraid of the people's anger. But his brother's wife Herodias, with whom he cohabited, persuaded her daughter Salome to deceive the king to kill the prisoner. At the feast Salome danced for Herod. He liked the dance so much that he vowed to fulfill her every desire. Salome asked for John's head on a platter. Herod complied with the request. So the prophet was martyred.
Why John the Baptist was imprisoned
John the Baptist denounced the tetrarch (that is, one of the four Roman rulers of Judea) of Galilee Herod Antipas for many atrocities. Herod cohabited with his brother Philip's wife Herodias, which grossly violated Jewish custom. The prophet was not afraid of the cruel king and spoke of his sins before the people. Herod put him in prison, but did not want to execute him: he was afraid of human unrest: the Jews loved and honored the righteous.
When the Beheading of John the Baptist is celebrated
The beheading of John the Baptist is remembered by the Russian Orthodox Church on September 11 (August 29, old style).
What you can eat on the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist
This day is a strict fast. Fasting people do not eat meat, fish, eggs and dairy products. Food can only be seasoned vegetable oil... Gastronomic restrictions on this holiday are an expression of our grief over the death of the great John the Baptist.
The head of John the Baptist - the history of the shrine
Many years after the execution of John the Baptist, the land in which the vessel with his holy head rested became the property of the pious nobleman Innocent. The vessel was discovered during the construction of the church. This was the first miraculous finding of the head of John the Baptist.
Miracles began to occur from the shrine. Innocent reverently guarded the head of the prophet, and shortly before his death he buried it again in the same place so that it would not be reviled by the Gentiles.
According to legend, during the reign of Emperor Constantine, Saint John the Baptist appeared to two monks - pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem. They dug up a vessel with its holy head and decided to appropriate the great shrine for themselves. They hid it in a bag and went home. On the way, they met a potter, whom they had entrusted to carry the precious burden. The Forerunner appeared again - to the potter. According to the word of the prophet, this pious man left the monks along with the head of the prophet. The sealed vessel was passed down from generation to generation in his family.
As the legend says, then the shrine fell into the hands of the heretic - the priest Eustathius. He was a follower of the heresy of Arianism. Using the miraculous power emanating from the head, he seduced many people into heresy. But the secret became clear - the blasphemy was revealed. Eustathius buried the shrine in a cave next to Emesa, wishing to return later and take it.
The heretic failed to regain the head of the prophet: a monastery was founded in the cave. In 452, John the Baptist appeared to the archimandrite of the monastery Markell. The saint indicated where his head rests. This was the second miraculous finding of the head of John the Baptist. She was transferred to Emessa, and then to the capital of Byzantium - Constantinople.
In 850, the head of the prophet was again transferred to Emessa, and then, during the Saracens' raid, to Comana. When the iconoclastic persecution began in Coman, the shrine was hidden. When the veneration of icons was restored, Patriarch Ignatius during prayer received knowledge of the place where the honest chapter is kept. The shrine was found - this was the third miraculous finding of the head of John the Baptist. The head was moved to the court church. Now part of it is kept on the holy Mount Athos.
The Church recalls the first and second miraculous finding of the head of John the Baptist on March 9 in the new style (February 24 in the old style). Feast of the third discovery of the head of St. John the Baptist - June 7, new style (May 25, old style).
Prayers of the Beheading of John the Baptist
Troparion the Forerunner
The memory of the righteous with praises, the testimony of the Lord, the Forerunner, is overwhelming for you: the most honest one showed that you are truly afraid of the prophets, as if you were honored by the Preached in the streams of baptism. However, having suffered for the truth, rejoicing, you preached the good news to those in hell of God, who appeared in the flesh, taking away the sin of the world and giving us great mercy.
Kontakion Forerunner
The glorious forerunner beheading, seeing was a kind of Divine, and for those in hell, the Savior's preaching of the coming; let Herodia weep, asking for a lawless murder: not the law of God, nor love the living century, but pretense, temporary.
Magnification of the Forerunner
We magnify thee, John the Baptist of the Savior, and we honor all your honest heads, beheading.
The meaning of the holiday Beheading of John the Baptist
Archpriest Igor FOMIN, rector of the Church of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky at MGIMO, answers:
“On September 11, we celebrate the memory of a man who was a prophet, forerunner, baptist of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The day of the Beheading of John the Baptist is the day of the saint's parting with this world, on which he suffered from human anger and cruelty. What does this holiday teach us? It would seem that evil defeated good: the righteous man is killed, his executioners are alive. Yes, martyrdom was the result of his life and heroism, but it did not erase the goodness and truth that he brought to people. Likewise, those of us who died for faith and righteousness did not live in vain. A life given in the name of truth can be the greatest sacrifice. It is not in vain, with its help a person preaches his ideals. "
Icon of the Beheading of John the Baptist
The icons of the Beheading of John the Baptist of the early Byzantine era have come down to us. This is a miniature from the Alexandria Chronicle and a fresco of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Cavushin in Cappadocia.
In the Middle Byzantine period, the following iconographic plot was widely spread: the prophet bowed down, and the warrior raises his sword over him; the action takes place against the backdrop of the desert. Also, the head of Saint John was depicted as separated from the body. At the same time, blood was poured from the prophet's neck, and his executioner stood over him and put his sword into the sheath.
On ancient Russian icons, the head of the prophet John the Baptist was painted in a bowl against the background of the temple. Monks, clergymen and Emperor Constantine were painted on either side of it.
Often Russian icon painters depicted the saint bowed, with his hands tied in front; while the warrior raised a sword over him. Such a plot can be seen, for example, on the frescoes in the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin in the Anthony Monastery in Veliky Novgorod (1125), in the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Mirozhsky Monastery in Pskov (around 1140), in the Church of the Annunciation on Myachin in Veliky Novgorod (1189) ...
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh. Sermon for the Day Beheading of John the Baptist
There is no fate more majestic and more tragic - Beheading of John the Baptist
We are accustomed in our life that about every need, about every occasion, we turn to God for His help. And for every our call, for every cry of longing, suffering, fear, we expect that the Lord will intercede for us, protect, comfort; and we know that He does this constantly, and that He showed His utmost concern for us by becoming a man and dying for us and for our sake.
But sometimes it happens in the life of our world that God turns to man for help. And this happens all the time, but often barely noticeable or goes completely unnoticed. God constantly addresses each of us, asking, praying, persuading to be in this world, which He loved so much that he laid down his life for it - to be His living presence, to be His living care, seeing, virtuous, attentive. He tells us that whatever we do good for any person, we have done for Him; thus He calls us to be here, as it were, in His place. And sometimes He calls some people to a more personal service to Him. V Old Testament we read about prophets; Prophet Amos says that a prophet is a person with whom God shares His thoughts. But not only by thoughts, but also by His deeds. Remember the prophet Isaiah, who in a vision saw the Lord looking around and saying: Whom should I send? - and the prophet got up and said: Me, Lord ...
But among the prophets, among the people who served God with an undivided heart, with all the great strength of the soul, there is one whose memory we celebrate today and whom God called the greatest among those who were born on earth. This is John the Baptist. And indeed, when you think about his fate, it seems that there is no fate more majestic and more tragic.
His whole destiny was not to be so that in the consciousness and in the vision of people the Only One Who is - the Lord would grow.
Remember the first thing that is said about him in the Gospel of Mark: "He is a voice crying in the wilderness." He is only a voice, he has become so united, he is no longer distinguishable from his ministry, that he has become only God's voice, only an evangelist; like him as a man, a man of flesh and blood, a man who can yearn and suffer, and pray, and seek, and stand, in the end, before the impending death - as if this man does not exist. He and his calling are one and the same; he is the voice of the Lord, sounding, thundering in the middle of the human desert; that desert where souls are empty, because there were people around John, and the desert remained unchanged from this.
And then the Lord Himself says about him in the Gospel that he is a friend of the Bridegroom. A friend who loves the bride and groom so much, so deeply that he is able, forgetting himself, to serve their love, and to serve so that he will never be superfluous, never be there and when he is not needed. He is a friend who is able to protect the love of the bride and groom and remain outside, the keeper of the secret of this love. Here, too, is the great mystery of a person who is capable of not becoming, so that there is something greater than him. And then the Baptist himself says about himself in relation to the Lord: "I have to decrease, come to naught, in order for Him to increase." It is necessary that they forget about me, that only He is remembered, it is necessary that my disciples turn away from me and leave, like Andrew and John on the banks of the Jordan River, in order to follow with an undivided heart only after Him: I live only to so that I’m gone!
And the last - the terrible image of John, when he was already in prison, when the circle of coming death was narrowing around him, when he had no way out, when this colossally great soul hesitated. Death went on him, life ended, where he had nothing of his own, in the past there was only the feat of renouncing himself, and in front of him was darkness. And at that moment, when the spirit hesitated in him, he sent his disciples to ask Christ: Are you the one we were expecting? If the One, then it was worth young years die alive. If He is the One, it was worth diminishing from year to year so that John would be forgotten and only the image of the Coming One would grow in the eyes of people. If He is the One, then it was worth now dying with the last dying, because everything for which John lived was fulfilled and accomplished. But what if He is not the One? Then everything is lost: both youth and the greatest strength of mature years, everything is ruined, everything is meaningless; and even worse, it happened because God ‘deceived’. God who called John in the wilderness, God who took him away from people, God who inspired him to the deed of self-death. Has God deceived, and life is gone, and there is no return?
And so, having sent his disciples to Christ with the question: "Are you the one?", John does not receive a direct, comforting answer. Christ does not answer him: "Yes, I am the One, go in peace!" He only gives the prophet the answer of another prophet that the blind receive their sight, that the lame walk, that the dead are raised, that the poor are preaching the gospel. He gives the answer from Isaiah, but does not add His own words - nothing but one formidable warning: “Blessed is he who will not be tempted about Me. Go tell John. " And this answer reached John in his dying expectation: believe to the end, believe, demanding no evidence, no evidence, no signs. Believe, because you have heard within, in the depths of your soul, the voice of the Lord, commanding you to do the work of the prophet. Prophets can somehow lean on the Lord for their sometimes greatest feat. But God supports John only by commanding him to be the Forerunner and for the sake of this to show the utmost faith, confidence in things invisible. And that is why it takes our breath away when we think of him, and that is why every time we think of a heroic deed that has no limit, we remember John. That is why of those who were born among people by natural birth and were lifted up wonderfully by grace, he is the greatest of all.
Today we celebrate the day of beheading ... We celebrate ... We are used to understanding the word "celebrate" as joy, but it also means "to stay idle," it can happen because the hands dropped from grief or from horror. And this is today's holiday: what will you take up in the face of what we have heard today in the Gospel?
And on this day, when hands give up before the horror and majesty of this fate, the Church calls on us to pray for those who, in horror and trembling and bewilderment, and sometimes in despair, died on the battlefield, died in dungeons, died a lonely death. After you venerate the cross, let us pray for all those who laid down their lives on the battlefield so that others might live, bowed to the ground so that another would rise. Let us remember those who from millennium to millennium, and not only in our time, perished a terrible death, because they knew how to love, or because others did not know how to love, we remember everyone, because the Lord's love embraces everyone, and for everyone there is, praying, the great John, who went through the whole tragedy of the sacrifice to the end of dying and death without a single word of consolation, but only by the imperious command of God: "Believe to the end, and be faithful to the end!"
Part of the relics of John the Baptist
Before a particle of the relics of John the Baptist, you can pray in the Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God in Vinogradov. This is the North-Eastern District of Moscow, the Trinity Deanery.
The stone church was built in 1772-1777 at the expense of Alexander Glebov, the owner of the estate in Vinogradov - according to the project of the famous architect Vasily Bazhenov. During the years of Soviet power, the church was not closed, but in 1930 the church house was confiscated from the community.
Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist in Kolomenskoye (Dyakovo village)
The temple is located in Moscow at the address: Andropov Avenue, house 39, building 7.
The church was erected in the village of Dyakovo in the middle of the 16th century. In some of its features, she anticipated the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed. Some researchers associate the foundation of the temple with the wedding of Ivan the Terrible to the throne in 1547; others suggest that it was founded as a prayer temple for Ivan the Terrible for his son, Tsarevich Ivan, who was born in 1554.
The temple was heavily altered in the 19th century, but all alterations were removed during the restoration in the 60s of the 20th century. In 1962, fragments of the original painting were cleared on the domed vault of the central pillar - an image of a circle with spirals of red bricks. It is interesting that scientists have not yet revealed the meaning of this painting.
Folk traditions of the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist
Among the people, the holiday of the Beheading of John the Baptist was also called the Flightman, Poletok, Ivan the Proletok, Repniy Feast, Golovosek, Ivan - the autumn torzhok, Ivan the Lenten, Ivan Lent and so on.
The traditions of the celebration were strongly influenced by ancient pagan beliefs and everyday superstitions. Many Christian symbols in the popular mind were distorted and acquired a grotesque meaning. For example, on the Feast of the Beheading, it was impossible to eat round fruits and vegetables, because ... they look like the head of the prophet. Apples, potatoes, watermelons, onions, turnips were banned. They tried to hide sharp objects away: they reminded ordinary people of the sword with which the warrior cut off the head of the saint. Therefore, the vegetables were not cut, and the bread was broken by hand. In some regions, red fruits and drinks were removed from the table - the color of the blood of the Baptist.
But there were folk traditions more related to the weather and the calendar cycle than to paganism. The day of the Beheading of John the Baptist was considered the beginning of autumn: "With Ivan Lent, a man meets autumn, a woman begins her Indian summer."
This holiday is the beginning of the "Repny Days". They fasted strictly, did not lead round dances and did not sing songs, because "Herod's daughter, dancing and singing, begged to cut off the head of John the Baptist." TO festive table it was customary to call the poor and the wanderers.
Jacopo da Ponte. Beheading of John the Baptist
Giovanni Batista Tiepolo. Beheading of John the Baptist
Pierre Cecile Puvis de Chavannes. Beheading of John the Baptist. 1869
Revenge of Herodias. Painting by Juan Flandes
The beheading of John the Baptist. Caravaggio. 1608
Salome. Lucas Cranach the Elder. OK. 1530
Guido Reni. Salome with the head of John the Baptist
Prayers for the Feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist
Chants of the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist performed by the choir of the church of St. Nicholas in Kuznetskaya Sloboda (Moscow)
Verse: From the depths I cried to You, Lord, * Lord, hear my voice.
On Christmas Day, creating cold Herod, a filthy dancer, the oath is being fulfilled:
Verse: Let Thy ears be * listening to the voice of my prayer.
To the creation of a cold Herod, a filthy dancer, the oath is being fulfilled:
Forerunner bo head, cut off, like food, worn on a platter reclining.
Oh, the feast is disgusting, unrepeatable deeds and murders are fulfilled!
But we are the Baptist, as if in those born by wives is great, worthy of honor, we please.
Verse: If the lawlessness is nazrishi, Lord, Lord, who will stand * as you have cleansing.
The dance is a disciple of the all-evil devil, and your head, Forerunner, is taken from you.
Oh, the feast, full of blood!
If you did swear, but you didn’t swear for good: I’d better get a lie to get my life, if I’ve already told the head of the Forerunner, cut it off.
But we are the Baptist, as if in those born by wives is great, worthy of honor, we please.
Verse: And for the sake of Thy patience, O Lord, my soul suffer for Thy word * my soul trusts in the Lord.
A student of the all-evil devil, and your head, Forerunner, was taken from you.
Oh, the feast, full of blood!
Better not to swear, Herod is lawless, a lie inside.
If you did swear, but you didn’t swear for good: I’d rather lie to receive my life,
truncate the head of the Forerunner. But we are the Baptist, as if in those born by wives is great, worthy of honor, we please.
Verse: From the guard of the morning to the night, from the guard of the morning * let Israel trust in the Lord.
But we are the Baptist, as if in those born by wives is great, worthy of honor, we please.
Verse: as the Lord has mercy and much deliverance from Him * and that He will deliver Israel from all his iniquities.
It is not befitting, O Herod, to condemn the adultery of an accuser, for the sake of satanicism and incitement to violent fornication by death.
Do not befit the honorable head of a most lawless wife for the sake of an oath of dancing to betray the poor.
Oh, how dare thou commit such a murder!
Why did the nasty dancer not scorch, in the middle of a feast on a platter wearing this?
But we are the Baptist, as if in those born by wives is great, worthy of honor, we please.
Verse: Praise the Lord, all nations * praise him, all people.
The Baptist is truncated and Herod is confused.
With prayers, Lord, Thy Forerunner, give peace to our souls.
Verse: As if his mercy was established on us * and the truth of the Lord abides forever.
Paki Herodia is mad, Paki is embarrassed.
Oh, the dancing is flattering and the feast with flattery!
The Baptist is truncated and Herod is confused. With prayers, Lord, Thy Forerunner, give peace to our souls.
September 11, 2017: Beheading of John the Baptist
“There is no fate more majestic or more tragic,” wrote Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh in his sermon on the Beheading of John the Baptist.
“There is no fate more majestic or more tragic,” wrote Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh in his sermon on the Beheading of John the Baptist. On September 11, Orthodox Christians remember the New Testament event - the violent death of the great prophet who predicted the coming of the Messiah and baptized the Lord Jesus Christ in the waters of the Jordan River.
Events of the Beheading of John the Baptist
The beheading of the head of the Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John is the full name of the holiday. September 11 (August 29, old style) The Russian Orthodox Church recalls the New Testament events described in the 14th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew and the 6th chapter of the Gospel of Mark.
Saint John the Baptist, who predicted the coming of the Messiah and baptized Jesus Christ in the Jordan River, was imprisoned by the order of King Herod Antipas. Herod at that time ruled in Galilee, and the great prophet denounced the sins and atrocities of him and his entourage. The Tetrarch (that is, one of the four Roman rulers of Judea) was afraid to execute the saint: the people loved him, and Herod was afraid of the people's anger. But his brother's wife Herodias, with whom he cohabited, persuaded her daughter Salome to deceive the king to kill the prisoner. At the feast Salome danced for Herod. He liked the dance so much that he vowed to fulfill her every desire. Salome asked for John's head on a platter. Herod complied with the request. So the prophet was martyred.
Why John the Baptist was imprisoned
John the Baptist denounced the tetrarch (that is, one of the four Roman rulers of Judea) of Galilee Herod Antipas for many atrocities. Herod cohabited with his brother Philip's wife Herodias, which grossly violated Jewish custom. The prophet was not afraid of the cruel king and spoke of his sins before the people. Herod put him in prison, but did not want to execute him: he was afraid of human unrest: the Jews loved and honored the righteous.
When the Beheading of John the Baptist is celebrated
The beheading of John the Baptist is remembered by the Russian Orthodox Church on September 11 (August 29, old style).
What you can eat on the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist
This day is a strict fast. Fasting people do not eat meat, fish, eggs and dairy products. Food can only be seasoned with vegetable oil. Gastronomic restrictions on this holiday are an expression of our grief over the death of the great John the Baptist.
The head of John the Baptist - the history of the shrine
Many years after the execution of John the Baptist, the land in which the vessel with his holy head rested became the property of the pious nobleman Innocent. The vessel was discovered during the construction of the church. This was the first miraculous finding of the head of John the Baptist.
Miracles began to occur from the shrine. Innocent reverently guarded the head of the prophet, and shortly before his death he buried it again in the same place so that it would not be reviled by the Gentiles.
According to legend, during the reign of Emperor Constantine, Saint John the Baptist appeared to two monks - pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem. They dug up a vessel with its holy head and decided to appropriate the great shrine for themselves. They hid it in a bag and went home. On the way, they met a potter, whom they had entrusted to carry the precious burden. The Forerunner appeared again - to the potter. According to the word of the prophet, this pious man left the monks along with the head of the prophet. The sealed vessel was passed down from generation to generation in his family.
As the legend says, then the shrine fell into the hands of the heretic - the priest Eustathius. He was a follower of the heresy of Arianism. Using the miraculous power emanating from the head, he seduced many people into heresy. But the secret became clear - the blasphemy was revealed. Eustathius buried the shrine in a cave next to Emesa, wishing to return later and take it.
The heretic failed to regain the head of the prophet: a monastery was founded in the cave. In 452, John the Baptist appeared to the archimandrite of the monastery Markell. The saint indicated where his head rests. This was the second miraculous finding of the head of John the Baptist. She was transferred to Emessa, and then to the capital of Byzantium - Constantinople.
In 850, the head of the prophet was again transferred to Emessa, and then, during the Saracens' raid, to Comana. When the iconoclastic persecution began in Coman, the shrine was hidden. When the veneration of icons was restored, Patriarch Ignatius during prayer received knowledge of the place where the honest chapter is kept. The shrine was found - this was the third miraculous finding of the head of John the Baptist. The head was moved to the court church. Now part of it is kept on the holy Mount Athos.
The Church recalls the first and second miraculous finding of the head of John the Baptist on March 9 in the new style (February 24 in the old style). Feast of the third discovery of the head of St. John the Baptist - June 7, new style (May 25, old style).
Prayers of the Beheading of John the Baptist
Troparion the Forerunner
The memory of the righteous with praises, the testimony of the Lord, the Forerunner, is overwhelming for you: the most honest one showed that you are truly afraid of the prophets, as if you were honored by the Preached in the streams of baptism. However, having suffered for the truth, rejoicing, you preached the good news to those in hell of God, who appeared in the flesh, taking away the sin of the world and giving us great mercy.
Kontakion Forerunner
The glorious forerunner beheading, seeing was a kind of Divine, and for those in hell, the Savior's preaching of the coming; let Herodia weep, asking for a lawless murder: not the law of God, nor love the living century, but pretense, temporary.
Magnification of the Forerunner
We magnify thee, John the Baptist of the Savior, and we honor all your honest heads, beheading.
The meaning of the holiday Beheading of John the Baptist
Archpriest Igor FOMIN, rector of the Church of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky at MGIMO, answers:
“On September 11, we celebrate the memory of a man who was a prophet, forerunner, baptist of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The day of the Beheading of John the Baptist is the day of the saint's parting with this world, on which he suffered from human anger and cruelty. What does this holiday teach us? It would seem that evil defeated good: the righteous man is killed, his executioners are alive. Yes, martyrdom was the result of his life and heroism, but it did not erase the goodness and truth that he brought to people. Likewise, those of us who died for faith and righteousness did not live in vain. A life given in the name of truth can be the greatest sacrifice. It is not in vain, with its help a person preaches his ideals. "
Icon of the Beheading of John the Baptist
The icons of the Beheading of John the Baptist of the early Byzantine era have come down to us. This is a miniature from the Alexandria Chronicle and a fresco of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Cavushin in Cappadocia.
In the Middle Byzantine period, the following iconographic plot was widely spread: the prophet bowed down, and the warrior raises his sword over him; the action takes place against the backdrop of the desert. Also, the head of Saint John was depicted as separated from the body. At the same time, blood was poured from the prophet's neck, and his executioner stood over him and put his sword into the sheath.
On ancient Russian icons, the head of the prophet John the Baptist was painted in a bowl against the background of the temple. Monks, clergymen and Emperor Constantine were painted on either side of it.
Often Russian icon painters depicted the saint bowed, with his hands tied in front; while the warrior raised a sword over him. Such a plot can be seen, for example, on the frescoes in the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin in the Anthony Monastery in Veliky Novgorod (1125), in the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Mirozhsky Monastery in Pskov (around 1140), in the Church of the Annunciation on Myachin in Veliky Novgorod (1189) ...
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh. Sermon for the Day Beheading of John the Baptist
There is no fate more majestic and more tragic - Beheading of John the Baptist
We are accustomed in our life that about every need, about every occasion, we turn to God for His help. And for every our call, for every cry of longing, suffering, fear, we expect that the Lord will intercede for us, protect, comfort; and we know that He does this constantly, and that He showed His utmost concern for us by becoming a man and dying for us and for our sake.
But sometimes it happens in the life of our world that God turns to man for help. And this happens all the time, but often barely noticeable or goes completely unnoticed. God constantly addresses each of us, asking, praying, persuading to be in this world, which He loved so much that he laid down his life for it - to be His living presence, to be His living care, seeing, virtuous, attentive. He tells us that whatever we do good for any person, we have done for Him; thus He calls us to be here, as it were, in His place. And sometimes He calls some people to a more personal service to Him. In the Old Testament we read about prophets; Prophet Amos says that a prophet is a person with whom God shares His thoughts. But not only by thoughts, but also by His deeds. Remember the prophet Isaiah, who in a vision saw the Lord looking around and saying: Whom should I send? - and the prophet got up and said: Me, Lord ...
But among the prophets, among the people who served God with an undivided heart, with all the great strength of the soul, there is one whose memory we celebrate today and whom God called the greatest among those who were born on earth. This is John the Baptist. And indeed, when you think about his fate, it seems that there is no fate more majestic and more tragic.
His whole destiny was not to be so that in the consciousness and in the vision of people the Only One Who is - the Lord would grow.
Remember the first thing that is said about him in the Gospel of Mark: "He is a voice crying in the wilderness." He is only a voice, he has become so united, he is no longer distinguishable from his ministry, that he has become only God's voice, only an evangelist; like him as a man, a man of flesh and blood, a man who can yearn and suffer, and pray, and seek, and stand, in the end, before the impending death - as if this man does not exist. He and his calling are one and the same; he is the voice of the Lord, sounding, thundering in the middle of the human desert; that desert where souls are empty, because there were people around John, and the desert remained unchanged from this.
And then the Lord Himself says about him in the Gospel that he is a friend of the Bridegroom. A friend who loves the bride and groom so much, so deeply that he is able, forgetting himself, to serve their love, and to serve so that he will never be superfluous, never be there and when he is not needed. He is a friend who is able to protect the love of the bride and groom and remain outside, the keeper of the secret of this love. Here, too, is the great mystery of a person who is capable of not becoming, so that there is something greater than him. And then the Baptist himself says about himself in relation to the Lord: "I have to decrease, come to naught, in order for Him to increase." It is necessary that they forget about me, that only He is remembered, it is necessary that my disciples turn away from me and leave, like Andrew and John on the banks of the Jordan River, in order to follow with an undivided heart only after Him: I live only to so that I’m gone!
And the last - the terrible image of John, when he was already in prison, when the circle of coming death was narrowing around him, when he had no way out, when this colossally great soul hesitated. Death went on him, life ended, where he had nothing of his own, in the past there was only the feat of renouncing himself, and in front of him was darkness. And at that moment, when the spirit hesitated in him, he sent his disciples to ask Christ: Are you the one we were expecting? If Thoth, then it was worth dying in a young age. If He is the One, it was worth diminishing from year to year so that John would be forgotten and only the image of the Coming One would grow in the eyes of people. If He is the One, then it was worth now dying with the last dying, because everything for which John lived was fulfilled and accomplished. But what if He is not the One? Then everything is lost: both youth and the greatest strength of mature years, everything is ruined, everything is meaningless; and even worse, it happened because God ‘deceived’. God who called John in the wilderness, God who took him away from people, God who inspired him to the deed of self-death. Has God deceived, and life is gone, and there is no return?
And so, having sent his disciples to Christ with the question: "Are you the one?", John does not receive a direct, comforting answer. Christ does not answer him: "Yes, I am the One, go in peace!" He only gives the prophet the answer of another prophet that the blind receive their sight, that the lame walk, that the dead are raised, that the poor are preaching the gospel. He gives the answer from Isaiah, but does not add His own words - nothing but one formidable warning: “Blessed is he who will not be tempted about Me. Go tell John. " And this answer reached John in his dying expectation: believe to the end, believe, demanding no evidence, no evidence, no signs. Believe, because you have heard within, in the depths of your soul, the voice of the Lord, commanding you to do the work of the prophet. Prophets can somehow lean on the Lord for their sometimes greatest feat. But God supports John only by commanding him to be the Forerunner and for the sake of this to show the utmost faith, confidence in things invisible. And that is why it takes our breath away when we think of him, and that is why every time we think of a heroic deed that has no limit, we remember John. That is why of those who were born among people by natural birth and were lifted up wonderfully by grace, he is the greatest of all.
Today we celebrate the day of beheading ... We celebrate ... We are used to understanding the word "celebrate" as joy, but it also means "to stay idle", but you can stay idle, because joy will overwhelm the soul and there is nothing to do with ordinary things, or maybe it is happen because the hands dropped from grief or horror. And this is today's holiday: what will you take up in the face of what we have heard today in the Gospel?
And on this day, when hands give up before the horror and majesty of this fate, the Church calls on us to pray for those who, in horror and trembling and bewilderment, and sometimes in despair, died on the battlefield, died in dungeons, died a lonely death. After you venerate the cross, let us pray for all those who laid down their lives on the battlefield so that others might live, bowed to the ground so that another would rise. Let us remember those who from millennium to millennium, and not only in our time, perished a terrible death, because they knew how to love, or because others did not know how to love, we remember everyone, because the Lord's love embraces everyone, and for everyone there is, praying, the great John, who went through the whole tragedy of the sacrifice to the end of dying and death without a single word of consolation, but only by the imperious command of God: "Believe to the end, and be faithful to the end!"
Part of the relics of John the Baptist
Before a particle of the relics of John the Baptist, you can pray in the Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God in Vinogradov. This is the North-Eastern District of Moscow, the Trinity Deanery.
The stone church was built in 1772-1777 at the expense of Alexander Glebov, the owner of the estate in Vinogradov - according to the project of the famous architect Vasily Bazhenov. During the years of Soviet power, the church was not closed, but in 1930 the church house was confiscated from the community.
Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist in Kolomenskoye (Dyakovo village)
The temple is located in Moscow at the address: Andropov Avenue, house 39, building 7.
The church was erected in the village of Dyakovo in the middle of the 16th century. In some of its features, she anticipated the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed. Some researchers associate the foundation of the temple with the wedding of Ivan the Terrible to the throne in 1547; others suggest that it was founded as a prayer temple for Ivan the Terrible for his son, Tsarevich Ivan, who was born in 1554.
The temple was heavily altered in the 19th century, but all alterations were removed during the restoration in the 60s of the 20th century. In 1962, fragments of the original painting were cleared on the domed vault of the central pillar - an image of a circle with spirals of red bricks. It is interesting that scientists have not yet revealed the meaning of this painting.
Folk traditions of the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist
Among the people, the holiday of the Beheading of John the Baptist was also called the Flightman, Poletok, Ivan the Proletok, Repniy Feast, Golovosek, Ivan - the autumn torzhok, Ivan the Lenten, Ivan Lent and so on.
The traditions of the celebration were strongly influenced by ancient pagan beliefs and everyday superstitions. Many Christian symbols in the popular mind were distorted and acquired a grotesque meaning. For example, on the Feast of the Beheading, it was impossible to eat round fruits and vegetables, because ... they look like the head of the prophet. Apples, potatoes, watermelons, onions, turnips were banned. They tried to hide sharp objects away: they reminded ordinary people of the sword with which the warrior cut off the head of the saint. Therefore, the vegetables were not cut, and the bread was broken by hand. In some regions, red fruits and drinks were removed from the table - the color of the blood of the Baptist.
But there were folk traditions more associated with the weather and the calendar cycle than with paganism. The day of the Beheading of John the Baptist was considered the beginning of autumn: "With Ivan Lent, a man meets autumn, a woman begins her Indian summer."
This holiday is the beginning of the "Repny Days". They fasted strictly, did not dance in circles and did not sing songs, because "Herod's daughter, dancing and singing, begged to cut off the head of John the Baptist." It was customary to invite poor people and wanderers to the festive table.
