Today in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches is the commemoration of the Beheading of the Holy Forerunner John the Baptist. St. John the Baptist was the cousin of Jesus due to his mother Elizabeth’s relation to Jesus’s Mother Mary; the unborn John leapt for joy at the sound of Mary’s voice (Lk. 1:41, 44), recognizing the mother of the Messiah. John’s birth was miraculously foretold to his father, the priest Zachary, and he grew up to be the last of the Old Testament prophets, living on locusts and honey and wearing a hair shirt (Matt. 3:4), preaching repentance. The angelic prophecy to Zachary said of John (Luke 1:15-17):
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The Martyrdom of John the Baptist
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Today in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches is the commemoration of the Beheading of the Holy Forerunner John the Baptist. St. John the Baptist was the cousin of Jesus due to his mother Elizabeth’s relation to Jesus’s Mother Mary; the unborn John leapt for joy at the sound of Mary’s voice (Lk. 1:41, 44), recognizing the mother of the Messiah. John’s birth was miraculously foretold to his father, the priest Zachary, and he grew up to be the last of the Old Testament prophets, living on locusts and honey and wearing a hair shirt (Matt. 3:4), preaching repentance. The angelic prophecy to Zachary said of John (Luke 1:15-17):