St. John the Forerunner (the Baptist)

The last of the prophets and the first to point at Christ: behold the Lamb of God. Son of the priest Zechariah and of Elizabeth in their old age, he leapt in the womb when the Theotokos came to his mother, grew up in the wilderness, and preached repentance at the Jordan to crowds that came out from all Judaea. He baptised Christ, saw the Spirit descend and heard the Father’s voice, which is why Theophany is also his feast. Christ called him the greatest of those born of women. He rebuked Herod Antipas for taking his brother’s wife, and was beheaded at her daughter’s request. The Church keeps his conception, his birth, his beheading as a strict fast, and the finding of his head, remembers him every Tuesday, and paints him with wings as the angel sent before the Lord’s face. Feast: June 24.