Family and Early Life
John was of priestly lineage on both sides: his father Zechariah served as a priest of the course of Abia, and his mother Elizabeth was likewise descended from Aaron. Orthodox tradition relates that Elizabeth was kin to the Theotokos — when the Virgin Mary visited Elizabeth, the unborn John leapt in his mother's womb in the presence of the unborn Christ.
Following the Nativity of Christ, when Herod ordered the slaughter of the male infants, Elizabeth fled with the young John into the wilderness and hid in a cave. By tradition Zechariah, serving in the Temple, was killed by Herod's soldiers when he refused to reveal where they were hidden. Elizabeth continued to live in the wilderness with her son until her death there, and John remained in the desert until his maturity.
From his youth John adopted a severe ascetic life, wearing rough clothing of camel-hair and a rope girdle and eating locusts and wild honey. He lived in the mountainous tract of Judea between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea.
Ministry and Witness
As an adult John came out of the desert to preach repentance along the Jordan, drawing thousands and rebuking the Pharisees and Sadducees as 'a generation of vipers.' His central work was to prepare the people for the Messiah whom he announced.
When he baptized Jesus, the heavens opened and a voice affirmed Jesus as God's beloved Son. Thereafter John testified that Jesus was 'the Lamb of God.' Christ in turn called John 'a burning and shining light' and 'more than a prophet,' and identified him as the Elijah who was to come.
John publicly reproved Herod Antipas for taking Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. By one account Herod also feared John's influence over the crowds. This rebuke led to John's imprisonment at Machaerus and, in time, his beheading.
Veneration and Legacy
Orthodox theology honors John as the last of the Old Testament prophets, a bridge between the two Testaments, and holds that after his death he descended into Hades to continue preaching the coming of Christ the Messiah. His ascetic life earned him the title 'Angel of the Desert,' and he is often depicted in iconography with wings.
The Eastern Orthodox Church venerates John on several feasts through the liturgical year, including the Conception (September 23), the Nativity (June 24), the Beheading (August 29, kept as a strict fast), and the Synaxis of John the Baptist on January 7, the day after Theophany. The Synaxis also commemorates the transfer of his right-hand relic from Antioch to Constantinople in 956.
Among the Serbian Orthodox, 'Jovanjdan' (John's Day) is kept as a major family feast, or slava.
Relics & Shrines
The history of John's head includes several recorded findings. The First Uncovering occurred in the fourth century during Constantine the Great's restoration of the holy sites of Jerusalem; tradition associates this with Constantine and St. Helen. A Second Finding took place on February 18, 452 at Emesa (Homs, Syria). After the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787) reestablished the veneration of icons, the head was brought to Constantinople around 850, commemorated as the Third Finding on May 25. The First and Second Findings are jointly kept on February 24.
An additional commemoration on October 12 marks the translation of his right-hand relic from Malta to Gatchina in 1799.
John's relics are distributed among many sites. The entire right arm and the cranium are kept at the Topkapi Museum in Constantinople; the right palm is at Cetinje Monastery in Montenegro. Further portions are venerated at St. Demetrios Church in Neo Phaleron, the Benaki Museum in Athens, and the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, among other locations.
