The third discovery of the head of Saint John the Forerunner. The Third Finding of the Honest Head of the Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John

Hello, dear TV viewers! Today, June 7, Orthodox Church celebrates the third discovery of the head of the holy, glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John.

Prophet John the Baptist is the most revered saint after the Virgin Mary. In his honor, the following holidays were established (according to the new style): October 6 - conception, July 7 - Christmas, September 11 - beheading, January 20 - the Council of John the Baptist in connection with the feast of Epiphany, March 9 - the first and second finding of his head, June 7 is the third discovery of his head, October 25 is the celebration of the transfer of his right hand from Malta to Gatchina.

The Prophet John the Baptist was the son of the priest Zechariah (from the family of Aaron) and the righteous Elizabeth (from the family of King David). His parents lived near Hebron (in the Highlands), south of Jerusalem. He had to maternal line a relative of the Lord Jesus Christ and was born six months before the Lord.

As the Evangelist Luke narrates, the Archangel Gabriel, appearing to his father Zechariah in the temple, announced the birth of his son. And so the pious spouses, deprived of the consolation of having children until old age, finally have a son, whom they asked for in prayers.

By the grace of God, he escaped death among the thousands of murdered infants in and around Bethlehem. Saint John grew up in the wild desert, preparing himself for great service through a strict life of fasting and prayer. He wore rough clothes secured with a leather belt and ate wild honey and locusts (a genus of locust). He remained a desert dweller until the Lord called him at the age of thirty to preach to the Jewish people.

Obeying this calling, the prophet John appeared on the banks of the Jordan to prepare the people to receive the expected Messiah (Christ). To the river before the festival of purification in large quantities people gathered for religious ablutions. Here John turned to them, preaching repentance and baptism for the remission of sins.

The essence of his preaching was that before receiving external washing, people must be morally cleansed and thus prepare themselves to receive the Gospel. Of course, John's baptism was not yet the grace-filled sacrament of Christian baptism. Its meaning was spiritual preparation for the future baptism of water and the Holy Spirit.

According to one church prayer, the prophet John was a bright morning star, which in its brilliance surpassed the radiance of all other stars and foreshadowed the morning blessed day, illuminated by the spiritual Sun Christ (Mal. 4, 2). When the expectation of the Messiah reached highest degree, the Savior of the world Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, came to John at the Jordan to be baptized. The baptism of Christ was accompanied by miraculous phenomena - the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and the voice of God the Father from heaven: “This is My beloved Son...”

Having received a revelation about Jesus Christ, the prophet John told the people about Him: Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world(John 1:29). Hearing this, two of John's disciples joined Jesus Christ. They were the apostles John (the Theologian) and Andrew (the First-Called, brother of Simon Peter).

With the baptism of the Savior, the prophet John completed and, as it were, sealed his prophetic ministry. He fearlessly and strictly denounced vices as ordinary people, so powerful of the world this. For this he soon suffered.

King Herod Antipas (the son of King Herod the Great) ordered the prophet John to be imprisoned for denouncing him for abandoning his lawful wife (the daughter of the Arabian king Aretha) and for illegally cohabiting with Herodias. Herodias was previously married to Herod's brother, Philip.

On his birthday, Herod held a feast, which was attended by many noble guests. Salome, the daughter of the wicked Herodias, with her immodest dancing during the feast, pleased Herod and the guests reclining with him so much that the king promised with an oath to give her everything she asked for, even up to half of his kingdom.

The dancer, taught by her mother, asked to be given the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Herod respected John as a prophet, so he was saddened by such a request. However, he was embarrassed to break the oath he had given and sent a guard to the prison, who cut off John’s head and gave it to the girl, and she took the head to her mother.

Herodias, having outraged the cut off holy head of the prophet, threw it into a dirty place. The disciples of John the Baptist buried his body in the Samaritan city of Sebaste.

For his crime, Herod received retribution in 38; his troops were defeated by Arethas, who opposed him for dishonoring his daughter, abandoned for the sake of Herodias, and the next year the Roman emperor Caligula exiled Herod to prison.

As the legend tells, the Evangelist Luke, going around different cities and villages preaching Christ, took from Sebaste to Antioch a particle of the relics of the great prophet - his right hand. In 959, when the Muslims captured Antioch (under Emperor Constantine the Porphyrogenitus), the deacon transferred the hand of the Forerunner from Antioch to Chalcedon, from where it was transported to Constantinople, where it was kept until the conquest of this city by the Turks. After right hand John the Baptist was kept in St. Petersburg in the church Savior Not Made by Hands in the Winter Palace.

The holy head of John the Baptist was found by the pious Joanna and buried in a vessel on the Mount of Olives. Later, one pious ascetic, while digging a ditch for the foundation of the temple, found this treasure and kept it with himself, and before his death, fearing the desecration of the shrine by non-believers, he hid it in the ground in the same place where he found it.

During the reign of Constantine the Great, two monks came to Jerusalem to venerate the Holy Sepulcher, and John the Baptist appeared to one of them and pointed out where his head was buried. From that time on, Christians began to celebrate the first discovery of the head of John the Baptist.

About the prophet John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus Christ said: of those born of wives did not rise(prophet) greater than John the Baptist(Matt. 11:11). John the Baptist is glorified by the Church as “an angel, and an apostle, and a martyr, and a prophet, and a candle-bearer, and a friend of Christ, and a seal of the prophets, and an intercessor of old and new grace, and the most honorable and bright voice of the Word among those born.”

The third discovery of the venerable head of the holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John took place around the year 850. During the unrest in Constantinople in connection with the exile of St. John Chrysostom, the head of St. John the Baptist was taken to the city of Emesa. From there, during the Saracen raids, it was transferred (around 810-820) to Comana and there, during the period of iconoclastic persecutions, it was hidden in the ground.

When icon veneration was restored, Patriarch Ignatius, during night prayer, was shown in a vision the place where the head of St. John the Baptist was hidden. The high priest informed the emperor about this, who sent an embassy to Comana, and there the head was found for the third time, in the place indicated by the patriarch, around 850. Later, the chapter was again transferred to Constantinople and here on May 25, according to the old style, it was placed in the court church; part of the holy chapter is located on Holy Athos.

Dear brothers and sisters, today the memory of the saints is also celebrated:

St. Innocent, Archbishop. Kherson;

sschmch. Ferapont, bishop. Cyprus;

prmts. Elena Korobkova;

prmch. Tavrion Tolokontsev.

I heartily and warmly congratulate everyone who bears these holy names on their namesake day! I wish you peace of mind, physical health and unfailing help from God through the prayers of your heavenly patrons! Be protected by God! Many happy summers to you!

Hieromonk Dimitri (Samoilov)

Holy Tradition tells us that after the beheading of the venerable head of St. John the Baptist, the wicked Herodias did not allow her to be buried along with the body of the saint, but, having violated her, buried her in her palace in a “dishonorable place.” The saint’s disciples secretly took the body and buried it. The pious Joanna, the wife of the royal steward Chuza (the holy evangelist Luke mentions her - Luke 8:3) knew where Herodias buried the venerable head. And she secretly took the holy head, put it in a vessel and buried it on the Mount of Olives - in one of Herod’s estates.

When rumors about Jesus' preaching and the miracles he performed reached the royal palace, Herod and his wife Herodias went to check whether the head of John the Baptist was still there. Not finding her, they began to think that Jesus Christ is the risen John the Baptist. The Gospel also testifies to this error of theirs (Matthew 14:2).

First discovery of the head of John the Baptist

After many years, this estate came into the possession of the pious nobleman Innocent, who began to build a church there. When they were digging a ditch for the foundation, a vessel with the honest head of John the Baptist was found. Innocent learned about the greatness of the shrine from the signs of grace that came from it. This is how the First Finding of the Head took place. Innocent kept it with the greatest reverence, but before his death, fearing that the shrine would be desecrated by infidels, he again hid it in the very place where he found it. After his death, the church fell into disrepair and collapsed.

Second discovery of the head of John the Baptist

Many years later, during the reign of Equal-to-the-Apostles Tsar Constantine, his mother Saint Helena restored the Jerusalem shrines. Many pilgrims began to flock to the Holy Land, among whom two monks from the East came to venerate the Holy Cross and the Holy Sepulcher. St. entrusted them with John the Baptist to find his honorable head. We only know that this was revealed to them in a dream and that after finding an honest head in the place indicated by him, they decided to return back. However, God's will was different. On the way, they met a poor potter from the Syrian city of Emesa (now Homs), who, due to poverty, was forced to go in search of work in neighboring country. The monks, having found a traveling companion, out of negligence or laziness, entrusted him with carrying the bag with the shrine. And he carried it to himself until Saint John the Baptist appeared to him and commanded him to leave the careless monks and flee from them along with the bag entrusted to him by Providence himself.

The Lord, for the sake of the head of John the Baptist, blessed the potter's house with all sufficiency. The potter lived his entire life, remembering what he owed and to whom, he was not proud and gave alms abundantly, and shortly before his death he handed over the honest head to his sister, commanding him to pass it on to God-fearing and virtuous Christians.

However, according to the Providence of God, the honest head, passing for a long time from one person to another, fell into the hands of Hieromonk Eustathius, infected with the heresy of Arius. Sick people who came to him received healing from him, not knowing that the reason for this was not the latter’s imaginary piety, but the grace emanating from his hidden head. Soon his wickedness was revealed, and he was expelled from Emesa. And around the cave where the hieromonk lived and in which the head of John the Baptist was buried, a monastery was formed.

After much time, by the grace of God, the second acquisition of an honest head took place. We know this for certain from the description of both the Archimandrite of the Emes monastery Markell himself, and from the life of the Venerable Matrona (November 9), written by St. Simeon Metaphrastus. According to the first, the honest chapter was revealed to him on February 18 of the year. A week later, Bishop Uranius of Emesa opened her veneration, and on February 26 of the same year she was transferred to Emesa to the newly created church in the name of John the Baptist. All these events were accompanied by both the healing of the sick and the miraculous revelation of the unbelief of some clergy.

After some time, the honest head of St. Joanna was transferred to Constantinople, where she remained until the reign of the iconoclastic heresy. Pious Christians, leaving Constantinople, secretly took with them the head of John the Baptist and hid it in Comana (it is not known which Comana we are talking about - Cappadocian or Pontic).

The Third Discovery of the Head of John the Baptist

After the establishment of Orthodoxy at the Council of Constantinople in 842, the honorable head was returned to the Byzantine capital for about a year. The Church celebrates this event on May 25 as the third finding of the head of St. John the Baptist.

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In the year, the Bishop of Amiens laid the first stone in the foundation of the new cathedral, which, after many additions, will become the most magnificent building in the future gothic style in Europe.

Its main shrine was also transferred to this cathedral: the front part of the venerable head of St. John.

Gradually, Amiens becomes a place of pilgrimage not only for ordinary Christians, but also for French kings, princes and princesses. The first to come in the year to venerate the venerable head was Saint Louis, King of France. Then his son came - Philip III the Bold, Charles VI and Charles VII, who made large offerings to decorate the relics.

In the year, Pope Clement VIII, wanting to enrich the Baptist Church in Rome (Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano), asked the canons of Amiens for a particle of the relics of St. John.

After the revolution of the year, inventories of church property and seizures of relics took place throughout France.

Reliquary of the Venerable Head of St. John the Baptist remained in the cathedral until November of the year, when he was requested by representatives of the Convention. They removed all the jewelry from the relics, and ordered the honest head to be sent to the cemetery. But the will of the high authorities was not fulfilled. After their departure, the mayor of the city, Louis-Alexandre Lescouve, secretly returned to the treasury and took the relics to his house. Thus this shrine was preserved. A few years later, the former mayor handed it over to Abbot Lejeune for safekeeping. In the year the head of St. Joanna was returned to the cathedral.

At the end of the 19th century historical science, not without participation church leaders, admitted that in the Middle Ages there were many cases of forgery of relics. Due to general mistrust, veneration of the Amiens shrine began to gradually fade away.

A new surge of interest in the relics occurred in the middle of the century, namely in the year. The rector of Amiens Cathedral informed the church authorities that in the east of France in Verdun, since the 17th century, a lower jaw, presumably of St. John the Baptist. He wanted to make a comparison of the two parts. With the blessing of the Bishop of Amiens, a commission of qualified medical experts was established.

The study of the relics lasted for several months and took place in two stages: the first in Amiens, the second in Paris. Upon completion of the work, the commission's findings were collected in a document signed by all its members.

Based on the first chapter of the document, which is devoted to research carried out in Amiens, the following conclusions were drawn:

1. A comparison of the object called Verdun with the object from Amiens revealed their anatomical incompatibility, which undoubtedly confirms their different origins.
2. From a chronological point of view, the object called Verdun is less ancient than the Amiens one. In its appearance and weight it resembles the “bones of the Middle Ages.”
3. The front part, called the head of St. John the Baptist from Amiens, is a very ancient object - more ancient than the “bones of the Middle Ages”. On the other hand, it appears to be less ancient than Mesolithic human bones, which allows its age to be dated between 1000 and 2500 years.
4. The person's age cannot be determined due to missing teeth. But, based on the fact that the alveoli (tooth sockets) are fully developed and that some are a little worn at the edges, it can be assumed that we're talking about about an adult (between 25-40 years).
5. The general characteristics of the head due to the lack of elements can be determined, but with a larger tolerance. The type of face is Caucasoid (which means neither Negroid nor Mongoloid). The small size of the Amiens object and the development of the lower ocular arches lead to the assumption that it might correspond to a racial type called “Mediterranean” (the type to which modern Bedouins belong).

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Sacred Tradition tells us that after the beheading of the head of Saint John the Baptist, the wicked Herodias did not allow it to be buried along with the body of the saint, but, having violated it, buried it near her palace. The saint’s disciples secretly took the body and buried it. The wife of King Herod's henchman knew where Herodias buried the head. And she decided to rebury her on the Mount of Olives in one of Herod’s estates.

When rumors about Jesus' preaching and the miracles he performed reached the royal palace, Herod and his wife Herodias went to check whether the head of John the Baptist was still there. Not finding her, they began to think that Jesus Christ is the risen John the Baptist. This misconception of theirs is evidenced by Holy Gospel(Matt. 14:2).

Jerusalem. First discovery of the head of John the Baptist

Many years later, during the reign of Equal-to-the-Apostles Tsar Constantine, his mother Saint Helena restored the Jerusalem shrines. Many pilgrims began to flock to the Holy Land, some of whom came to worship To the Honest Cross and the Holy Sepulcher two monks from the East. Saint John entrusted them with finding his head. We only know that he appeared to them in a dream, and that after finding the head in the place he indicated, they decided to return back. However, God's will was different. On the way, they met a poor potter from the Syrian city of Emesa, who, due to poverty, was forced to go in search of work in a neighboring country. The monks, having found a traveling companion, out of negligence or laziness, entrusted him with carrying the bag with the shrine. And he carried it to himself until Saint John the Baptist appeared to him and commanded him to leave the careless monks and run away from them along with the bag entrusted to him.

The Lord, for the sake of the head of John the Baptist, blessed the potter's house with all abundance. The potter lived his entire life, remembering what he owed and to whom, he was not proud and gave alms abundantly, and shortly before his death he handed over the head of the saint to his sister, commanding him to pass it on to God-fearing and virtuous Christians.

The head of the saint, passing for a long time from one person to another, fell into the hands of Hieromonk Eustathius, a supporter of the Arian heresy. Sick people who turned to him received healing, not knowing that the reason for this was not the imaginary piety of Eustathius, but the grace emanating from the hidden head of him. Soon Eustathius's trick was discovered, and he was expelled from Emesa. And around the cave where the hieromonk lived and in which the head of John the Baptist was buried, a monastery was formed.

Emesa and Constantinople. The Second and Third Findings of the Honest Head

After many years, the second discovery of the head of St. John took place. This is known from the description of Archimandrite Markell of the Emesa monastery, as well as from the life of the Venerable Matrona (her feast day is November 9), written by the Venerable Simeon Metaphrastus. According to the description of the first, the chapter opened to him on February 18, 452. A week later, Bishop Uranius of Emesa began venerating her, and on February 26 of the same year she was transferred to the newly created church in honor of St. John. This event is celebrated on February 24 along with the celebration of the first acquisition of an honest head.

After some time, the head of the Baptist John was transferred to Constantinople, where it remained until iconoclastic times. Pious Christians, leaving Constantinople, secretly took with them the head of John the Baptist, and then hid it in Komani (near Sukhumi), the city in which St. John Chrysostom once died while in exile (407). After VII Ecumenical Council(787), which restored the Orthodox veneration of icons, the head of St. John the Baptist was returned to the Byzantine capital around 850. The Church celebrates this event on May 25 as the third finding of an honest head.

The Fourth Crusade and the Journey to the West

The story of the chapter of St. John usually ends with the story of the third finding. This is due to the fact that its further history is connected with the Catholic West. If we turn to the lives of the saints, set out according to the guidance of the Chetya-minya of St. Demetrius of Rostov, then at the end of the description of the acquisitions of the head of the holy Forerunner we will find a footnote, typed in small print, and therefore often missed by readers. But for us, who quite unexpectedly found the head of the Baptist several years ago in France, this footnote upon returning to our homeland was a real discovery. We would like to talk below about the next “discovery” of the head of John the Baptist in the far West.

So, in a footnote we can read that after 850 part of the head of St. John ended up in Petra in the Prodromo monastery, and the other part in the Studian Baptist Monastery. In this monastery, the top of the dome was seen by the pilgrim Anthony back in 1200. However, already in 1204 it was moved by the crusaders to Amiens in northern France. In addition, the footnote indicates three other locations of the fragments of the chapter: the Athonite monastery of Dionysius, the Ugrovlahian monastery of Kalui and the church of Pope Sylvester in Rome, to which the particle of the relics was transferred from Amiens.

The history of the appearance of the head of St. John in France is not much different from the history of many other greatest shrines of Christianity.

April 13, 1204 during the Fourth crusade troops of Western knights captured the capital of the Roman Empire - Constantinople. The city was devastated and plundered.

As Western legend says, Canon Vallon de Sarton from Pikinia found a case containing a silver dish in the ruins of one of the palaces. On it, under a glass cover, the remains of a human face were hidden, only the lower jaw was missing. A small hole was visible above the left eyebrow, probably made by a blow from a dagger.

On the dish the canon found an inscription: Greek, confirming that he is the owner of the relics of St. John the Baptist. In addition, the presence of a hole above the eyebrow was consistent with the event mentioned by St. Jerome. According to his testimony, Herodias, in a fit of anger, struck the saint’s severed head with a dagger.

Vallon de Sarton decided to deliver the head of the holy Forerunner to Picardy, in the north of France.

On December 17, 1206, on the third Sunday of Nativity Lent, the Catholic Bishop of the city of Amiens, Richard of Gerberoi, solemnly greeted the holy relics of John the Baptist at the city gates. Probably, the bishop was confident of the authenticity of the relics, which was easier to verify then, as they say, “without delay.” From this time on, the veneration of the head of St. John began in Amiens and throughout Picardy.

In 1220, the Bishop of Amiens laid the first stone in the foundation of the new cathedral, which, after many additions, would in the future become the most magnificent Gothic building in Europe. The main shrine of the city was also transferred to this cathedral: the front part of the head of St. John.

Gradually, Amiens becomes a place of pilgrimage not only for ordinary Christians, but also for French kings, princes and princesses. The first to come to venerate the head in 1264 was the King of France, Louis IX, nicknamed the Saint. Then his son came - Philip III the Bold, Charles VI, and also Charles VII, who sacrificed a lot to decorate the relics.

In 1604, Pope Clement VIII, wanting to enrich the Church of the Baptist in Rome (Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano), asked the canons of Amiens for a particle of the relics of St. John.

Saving the head in times of revolutionary outrages

After the revolution of 1789, inventories of church property and seizures of relics took place throughout France.

The reliquary with the head of the Holy Forerunner remained in the cathedral until November 1793, when it was requested by representatives of the Convention. They removed all the jewelry from the relics, and ordered the relics of St. John to be sent to the cemetery. But the will of the revolutionary leadership was not fulfilled. After their departure, the mayor of the city, Louis-Alexandre Lecouve, secretly returned to the treasury and, under pain of death, took the relics to his house. Thus this shrine was preserved. A few years later, the former mayor handed it over to Abbot Lejeune for safekeeping. And after the cessation of revolutionary persecution, the head of St. John was returned to Cathedral Amiens in 1816 and has been there ever since.

IN last years Orthodox pilgrims are increasingly visiting Amiens. Now, with the participation of the Pilgrimage Center of the Korsun Diocese, not only Orthodox prayer services, but also liturgy.

Priest Maxim Massalitin

Pravoslavie.ru

John the Baptist (John the Baptist) - the closest predecessor of Jesus Christ, who predicted the coming of the Messiah, lived in the desert as an ascetic, then preached baptism of repentance for the Jews, baptized Jesus Christ in the waters of the Jordan, then was beheaded due to the machinations of the Jewish princess Herodias and her daughter Salome. Herodias was the wife of Herod Philip, but was taken from him by the tetrarch of Galilee, Herod Antipas, for which John denounced the latter. Herod Antipas imprisoned John, but did not dare to execute him (Matthew 14:3-5, Mark 6:17-20).
Herodias' daughter Salome (not named in the Gospels) on the birthday of Herod Antipas “danced and pleased Herod and those who reclined with him.” As a reward for the dance, Herod promised Salome to fulfill any of her requests. She, at the instigation of her mother, who hated John for exposing her marriage, asked for the head of John the Baptist and “The king was saddened, but for the sake of the oath and those who reclined with him, he did not want to refuse her” (Mark 6:26). A squire (speculator) was sent to John’s prison, who cut off his head and, bringing it on a platter, gave it to Salome, and she “gave it to her mother.” John's body was buried by his disciples, and the death was reported to Jesus (Matt. 14:6-12, Mark 6:21-29).

History of acquisitions

First discovery of the head of John the Baptist
According to legend, Herodias did not allow John’s head to be buried along with his body and hid it in her palace, from where it was taken out by a pious servant (whose name was Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward) and buried in an earthen jar on the Mount of Olives. Years later, the nobleman Innocent decided to build a church on that site, and while digging a ditch for the foundation, he discovered a jug with a relic, which was identified by the signs emanating from it. After finding the head, Innocent carefully kept it, but before his death, Innocent, fearing that the relic would be desecrated, hid it in his church, which then dilapidated and collapsed.

Second discovery of the head of John the Baptist
During the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great in Jerusalem, the head of John the Baptist was found by two monastic pilgrims who came to the city to venerate the Holy Sepulcher. John the Baptist appeared to one of them and indicated the place where the head was located. The monks took it with them and put the relic in a bag made of camel hair, but, showing laziness, they gave the relic to a potter they met from the Syrian city of Emessa to carry. According to legend, the saint who appeared ordered the potter to leave the impious monks and take the shrine for safekeeping. All his life he carefully preserved the relic, lit lamps and prayed every day. Before his death, the potter, at the behest of John the Baptist, placed the head in a water-bearing vessel, sealed it and gave it to his sister. He ordered his sister to carefully preserve the relic, and before her death, give it to a pious Christian. Later, the relic ended up in the possession of an Arian priest, who, with the help of healings emanating from it, supported the authority of the Arian doctrine. When his deception was revealed, he hid the chapter in a cave near the city of Emessa. Later, a monastery arose above the cave and in 452, John, who, according to legend, appeared to the archimandrite of the monastery, pointed out the place where his head was hidden. She was found and transferred to Constantinople.

The third discovery of the head of John the Baptist (now celebrated)
From Constantinople, the head of John the Baptist, during the unrest associated with the exile of John Chrysostom, was transferred to the city of Emessa, and then at the beginning of the 9th century to Comana, where it was hidden during the period of iconoclastic persecutions. After the restoration of icon veneration at the Council of Constantinople in 842, according to legend, Patriarch Ignatius, during night prayer, received instructions about the whereabouts of the relic. By order of Emperor Michael III, an embassy was sent to Comani, which around 850 found the head of John the Baptist in the place indicated by the patriarch. After this, the chapter was transferred to Constantinople and was placed in the court church. Theodore the Studite is credited with a Speech on the Finding of the Head of John the Baptist, which describes the story of its third discovery.

Prayer to the Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John

The Baptist of Christ, preacher of repentance, do not despise me who repents, but copulate with the heavenly ones, praying to the Lady for me, unworthy, sad, weak and sad, fallen into many troubles, burdened by the stormy thoughts of my mind. Because I am a den of evil deeds, with no end to sinful customs, my mind is nailed down by earthly things. What I will do, we do not know, and to whom I will resort, so that my soul will be saved, only to you, Saint John, by your namesake of grace, for you are before the Lord, according to the Theotokos, greater than all who were born: for you were deemed worthy to touch the heights of King Christ, take away the sins of the world, the Lamb of God. Pray to him for my sinful soul, so that from now on, at the first ten hour, I will bear a good burden and accept recompense with the last. To her, the Baptist of Christ, honest to the Forerunner, extreme prophet, first martyr in grace, mentor of fasters and desert dwellers, purity teacher and neighbor friend of Christ, I pray to you, I come running to you, do not reject me from your intercession, but raise me up, having fallen into many sins, renew my soul with repentance, as the second With baptism, since you are the leader of both, you washed away sin with baptism, and preached repentance for the cleansing of everyone’s bad deeds; Cleanse me, defiled by my sins, and force me to enter, even if nothing bad enters, into the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.

Troparion of the Forerunner

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Like a Divine treasure hidden in the earth, / Christ has opened your head to us, prophet and Forerunner. / All of us, having come together in this acquisition, / will sing the Savior with God-speaking songs, / / ​​saving us from corruption with your prayers.

Kontakion of the Forerunner

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The luminous and Divine pillar in the world, / the lamp of the sun, / the Forerunner, his luminous and Divine head / showing at the end, / sanctifies those who faithfully worship / and cry // to the wise Christ the Baptist, save us all.

Material on the topic

The story of the honest head of the Baptist of the Lord - she had three acquisitions on her account - is not very simple and, moreover, is still not fully understood. Italy, France, Syria, Greece, Armenia: each of these countries claims that they have the original head of John the Baptist. Tell what the arguments are scientific world cites the benefits of this or that shrine, we asked Timothy Katnis, historian and head of the Pilgrimage Center of the Apostle Thomas in Europe.

After the beheading of the head of John the Baptist, his body was taken by his disciples and buried in the Samaria city of Sebastia, and the honest head was thrown away Herodias to the landfill. However, the wife of the king's steward Khuzy secretly took the holy head, put it in a vessel and buried it on the Mount of Olives, in one of the estates Herod.

The first acquisition of an honest head occurred in the 4th century, when this land already belonged to a pious nobleman Innocent, who decided to build a church on it.

Subsequently, after a series of events, the head of John the Baptist ended up buried in a cave near the city of Emessa. In 452, her second discovery took place, when she was found by the archimandrite of the local monastery Markell.

The third acquisition of the honest head occurred around 850. During the Saracen raids, the shrine was moved from Emessa to Comana, where during the years of iconoclasm it was buried in the ground.

After the heresy of iconoclasm was defeated, the patriarch Ignatius the place where the honest head was located was revealed in a dream. The Patriarch reported this to the Emperor, who sent an embassy to Comana, as a result of which the Third Finding of the Head of Saint John the Baptist took place. After this, the shrine was transferred to Constantinople, where it was placed in the court church.