On this day, June 24 according to the Julian Calendar (July 7 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates the Nativity of the Holy, Glorious Prophet and Forerunner John the Baptist.
As the Holy Gospel of Luke (1:5-80) recounts, the parents of John the Baptist — the High Priest Zacharias and Elizabeth — were righteous before God, yet had reached old age without children. One day, while Zacharias was performing the divine service in the Temple at Jerusalem, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and announced: “Your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.” Shaken by fear, Zacharias doubted the heavenly messenger’s words, and as punishment he was deprived of the power of speech.
The holy Elizabeth, who was well past her youth, conceived, and for five months she hid herself to avoid the mockery of the people. Her distant relative, the Most Holy Virgin Mary, came to visit her during this time.
When the days of Elizabeth’s delivery were fulfilled, her neighbors and kinsmen rejoiced with her. On the eighth day, following the Law of Moses, the child was circumcised. The family intended to name him Zacharias after his father, but Elizabeth declared: “No; he shall be called John.” All were astonished, for no one in their family bore this name. They motioned to Zacharias, asking what he wished to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote: “His name is John,” and everyone marveled. By God’s providence, Zacharias immediately recovered his power of speech. Filled with the Holy Spirit, he began to prophesy: “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David.” To the child he said: “And you, child, will be called the Prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways.”
After the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, when the shepherds and the wise men had worshipped Him, the wicked King Herod commanded that all the male children in Bethlehem who were two years old and under be killed (Matthew 2:16). When Elizabeth heard of this, she fled with the child into the wilderness. Zacharias remained in Jerusalem and faithfully performed his priestly duties. Herod sent soldiers to him demanding that he reveal the whereabouts of the child and his mother. The father answered that he knew nothing of them, and for this he was put to death in the Temple itself. Elizabeth continued to live in the wilderness with the child until she reposed there. The child John, protected by an angel, dwelt in the desert.
May the intercessions of the Holy Prophet and Forerunner John the Baptist be with us all.