Baptist of Christ, honest Forerunner, extreme prophet, first martyr, mentor of fasters and hermits, teacher of purity and neighbor of Christ! I pray to you, and when you come running, do not reject me from your intercession, do not forsake me, who have fallen through many sins; renew my soul with repentance, like a second baptism; Cleanse me, the sins of the defiled, and compel me to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, even if nothing bad enters.
Amen.
Prayer before the icon “Holy Prophet and Forerunner of the Savior John the Baptist”
Baptist of Christ, preacher of repentance, do not despise me who repents, but copulating with the heavenly ones, pray 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 will I do? We don't know. And to whom shall I resort, that my soul may be saved? Only to you, Saint John, give the same name of grace, for you are before the Lord through the Mother of God greater than all those born, for you have been honored to touch the top of the King Christ, who takes away the sins of the world, the Lamb of God.
Pray for my sinful soul, so that from now on, in the first ten hours, I will bear a good burden and accept recompense with the last. To her, the Baptist of Christ, an honest Forerunner, an extreme Prophet, the first martyr in grace, a teacher of fasters and hermits, a teacher of purity and a close friend of Christ!
I pray to you, I come running to you: do not reject me from your intercession, but raise me up, cast down by many sins. Renew my soul with repentance, as with the second baptism, since you are the ruler of both: with baptism wash away the original sin, and with repentance cleanse every bad deed. Cleanse me, defiled by sins, and force me to enter, even if nothing bad enters, into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Amen.
Prayer before the icon “Holy Prophet and Forerunner of the Savior John the Baptist”
Holy Forerunner and Baptist of Christ John! This preacher of repentance, do not despise us who repent, but pray to the Lord Christ for us, unworthy slaves, sad, weak, fallen into many sins. We fear death, but we never worry about our sins and do not care about the Kingdom of Heaven:
but do not despise us, the Baptist of Christ, honest Forerunner, pain-born of all, mentor of fasters and hermits, teacher of purity and neighbor of Christ. We pray to you, we resort to you: do not reject us who ask for your intercession, renew our souls with repentance, which is the second baptism: by your intercession before the Lord, ask for the cleansing of our sins.
Unworthy lips cry out to you, and a humble soul prays, a contrite heart sighs from the depths: stretch out your most pure right hand and protect us from enemies visible and invisible. Hey, Lord Jesus Christ! Through the prayers of St. John Thy Baptist, and even more so of Thy Most Pure Mother, our Lady Theotokos, save us, Thy sinful servants who repent of our sins.
For You are the God of the repentant, and in You, the Savior, we place our hope, glorifying Your Most Holy Name, with Your Originless Father, and with Your Most Holy and Good and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.
Amen.
Prayer before the icon “Holy Prophet and Forerunner of the Savior John the Baptist”(prisoner's prayer)
John the Forerunner and Baptist of Christ, preacher of repentance! You were thrown into prison innocently: I, thrown into this misadventure, worthy of my deeds, accept it as a criminal of truth and law. Instill in my heart a feeling of repentance for my sins!
There is not a single malice or lawlessness that I, the accursed one, have committed; my sins are terrible. Teacher of truth! teach me the right to speak about myself before the judges. Do not cease to denounce the lawless Herod in prison, grant me, so that my conscience denounces me especially here, so that by denouncing it I will not be able to hide my crime for a long time.
If I am condemned to bear punishment, grant me to be patient, as you yourself patiently bore the beheading of your head, desired by Herodias. To her, the Baptist of Christ! Extend me, your servant, the hand that baptized Christ my Savior, so that you may draw me from the depths of destruction.
You are the greatest among all those born of women, you are the first according to the Mother of God, the righteous among men. For this reason I am running to you, because I need a great intercessor, for I am a great sinner. For now, may your grace, O Forerunner of the Lord, overshadow me, unworthy.
Amen.
Saint John the Baptist Prophet John the Baptist is the most revered saint after the Virgin Mary. The following holidays were established in his honor: October 6 - conception, July 7 - Christmas, September 11 - beheading, January 20 - Council of John the Baptist in connection with the feast of Epiphany, March 9 - the first and second discovery of his head, June 7 - third discovery his chapter, October 25 is the celebration of the transfer of his right hand from Malta to Gatchina (according to the new style).
As the Gospel of Luke narrates, the righteous parents of Saint John the Baptist and the Baptist of Christ, the priest Zechariah and Elizabeth, reached old age, but had no children. One day, Zechariah, while performing a service in the Jerusalem Temple, saw the Archangel Gabriel, who predicted that he would have a son - the herald of the Savior awaited by people. Zechariah doubted this and was punished: until the time the words of the archangel were fulfilled, he was struck dumb.
At the birth of the baby, the parents named him John - this name was predicted to Zechariah by the Archangel Gabriel. Soon after the Nativity of Christ, when King Herod, having learned about what had happened and fearing the coming Messiah, ordered to kill all the babies, Saint Elizabeth and her son fled into the desert and hid in a cave. Zechariah, who served in the temple and did not reveal to the king’s envoys the whereabouts of his son, was killed by them. Righteous Elizabeth and her son were in the desert until her death. 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.
Saint John the Baptist emerged from the desert only when the time had come for preaching and repentance and preparing people for the coming of the Savior. Obeying this calling, the prophet John appeared on the banks of the Jordan to prepare the people to receive the expected Messiah (Christ). Before the holiday of purification, people gathered in large numbers to the river 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. The holy prophet and Forerunner of Christ John, shortly after the Baptism of the Lord, was imprisoned by the ruler of Galilee, Herod Antipas, whom the Forerunner openly denounced for his lawless cohabitation with Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. On Herod's birthday, at a festive feast, Herodias's daughter Salome danced before the king and pleased him so much that he promised to give her whatever she asked. Then Salome, taught by her evil mother, asked King Herod for the head of John the Baptist, and the king was forced to fulfill his promise.
According to the expression of 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 of a blessed day, illuminated by the spiritual Sun of Christ (Mal. 4: 2). When the expectation of the Messiah reached its highest degree, the Savior of the world Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, came to John to 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 sins.” peace." Hearing this, two of John's disciples joined Jesus Christ. These 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 the vices of both ordinary people and the powerful of this world. For this, he soon suffered. King Herod Antipas (the son of King Herod the Great) ordered the prophet John to be put in prison for denouncing him for abandoning his legitimate wife (the daughter of the Arabian king Arefa) 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. On this day, the Church established a strict fast as an expression of grief over the violent death of the Great Prophet. They pray to John the Baptist, the prophet, the forerunner for relief from headaches, during the consecration of the apiary, for the protection of crops and for the fertility of the land.
For his crime, Herod received retribution in 38 after R. X.; his troops were defeated by Arethas, who opposed him for dishonoring his daughter, whom he abandoned for Herodias, and the following year the Roman emperor Caligula exiled Herod to prison.
As the legend tells, 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. Then the right hand of John the Baptist was kept in St. Petersburg in the Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands in the Winter Palace.
John the BaptistThe 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 unbelievers, 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 Finding of the Head of John the Baptist.
John the BaptistAbout the prophet John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus Christ said: “Among those born of women there has not arisen a greater (prophet) than John the Baptist.” 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 tradition of glorifying John the Baptist on the days of his birth and martyrdom developed in the first Christian communities. Since the 3rd century, the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist was already widely celebrated by both Eastern and Western Christians - it was called a “bright celebration” and “Day of the Sun of Truth.” At the beginning of the 4th century, the holiday was introduced into the Christian calendar.
The Church classifies the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist into the category of great holidays: it is less significant than the Twelves, but is more revered among the people compared to the others.
This event is reflected in the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, which tells how the priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, who lived in Hebron, grew old, but, due to Elizabeth’s barrenness, had no children.
One day, during a service in the Temple of Zechariah in Jerusalem, Archangel Gabriel appeared to the priest and predicted to the priest that he would soon have a son who would become the herald (forerunner) of the expected Messiah.
Zechariah, hearing the words of the Archangel Gabriel, doubted them and asked for a sign. To this, Archangel Gabriel replied: “You will remain silent and will not be able to speak until the day this comes true, because you did not believe my words, which will come true in due time” (Luke 1:20). And a sign was given to him, being at the same time a punishment for unbelief: Zechariah was struck dumb until the time the words of the Archangel were fulfilled.
Saint Elizabeth conceived, but hid her pregnancy for five months, until the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, who was her distant relative, visited her to share her and her joy. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, greeted the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God. And Saint John, who was still in his mother’s womb, leaped joyfully in the womb (Luke 1:44).
The time came, and Saint Elizabeth gave birth to a son. On the eighth day, according to the law of Moses, his circumcision took place. When his mother named him John, all his relatives were surprised, since no one in their family bore this name. When Saint Zechariah was asked about the name chosen for his newborn son, he asked for a tablet and wrote on it: “His name is John.” As soon as Zechariah did this, the bonds that bound his speech according to the prediction of the Archangel were resolved, and Saint Zechariah, filled with the Holy Spirit, glorified God and uttered prophetic words about the Messiah who appeared in the world and about his son John, the Forerunner of the Lord.
After the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ and the worship of the shepherds and wise men, the wicked king Herod ordered the death of all babies. Hearing about this, Saint Elizabeth fled with her son into the desert and hid there in a cave. And Saint Zechariah, continuing his priestly service, was in the Jerusalem temple when Herod sent soldiers to him with orders to reveal the whereabouts of the baby John and his mother. Zechariah replied that he did not know it, and was killed right in the temple (Matthew 23:35). Righteous Elizabeth remained with her son in the desert and died there.
When John was thirteen years old, he left the desert, came to the Jordan Valley and began his preaching. “Repent,” said the prophet, “for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” (Matt. 3:2). The Prophet spoke about the Judgment of the world, and everything around John seemed to breathe a premonition of the proximity of great events. His words immediately found a wide response in the souls of the Jews. People from surrounding cities walked in crowds to the Jordan River, in which John baptized the people with water. John chose the rite of immersion in the waters of the Jordan as a symbol of entry into the Messianic faith. Just as water washes the body, so repentance cleanses the soul. John demanded that people re-evaluate their entire lives and sincere repentance. Before washing, people confessed their sins.
The holy prophet John the Baptist preached many other things, teaching the people who came to him (Matthew 3:1-12; Mark 1:1-18; Luke 3:1-18; John 1:15-28). And Jesus Christ himself received Baptism from John.
People call this day Ivan Kupala or Midsummer's Day - one of the important holidays of the Slavic calendar, celebrated on the day of the summer solstice, in the Christian tradition - a holiday in honor of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the Baptist of the Lord.
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The Cathedral of John the Baptist in connection with the feast of Epiphany, February 24 - the first and second finding of his head, May 25 - the third finding of his head, October 12 - the feast 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 was a relative of the Lord Jesus Christ on his mother's side and was born six months before the Lord. As 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. Hearing about the murders, Elizabeth took the boy and retired to the desert mountains. Seeing the approaching warriors, she prayed to God for salvation and then the mountain parted, accepted her along with her son and hid her from her pursuers. Not finding them, the warriors inquired about the Forerunner from Zechariah, who was eventually killed. Elizabeth died in the mountains forty days after the murder of her righteous husband, and Saint John was nourished by an angel until he came of age. He grew up in the wild desert, preparing himself for great service by a strict life of fasting and prayer. The Forerunner wore rough clothes secured with a leather belt and ate wild honey and locusts. He remained a desert dweller until the Lord called him at the age of thirty to preach to the Jewish people.
Sermon
Obeying this calling, the prophet John appeared on the banks of the Jordan to prepare the people to receive the expected Messiah (Christ). Before the holiday of purification, people gathered in large numbers to the river 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 the expression of 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 of a blessed day, illuminated by the spiritual Sun of Christ (Mal. 4: 2). When the expectation of the Messiah reached its highest degree, the Savior of the world Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, came to John to 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.” Hearing this, two of John's disciples joined Jesus Christ. These 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 the vices of both ordinary people and the powerful of this world. For this he soon suffered.
Dungeon
Execution
Baptist of Christ, preacher of repentance, do not despise me, who repents, but uniting with the heavenly ones, pray to the Master for me, unworthy, sad, weak and sad, in and those who have fallen into trouble, troubled by the stormy thoughts of my mind. Because I am a den of evil deeds, I have no end to sinful customs, because my mind is nailed down by earthly things. What will I do? We don't know. And to whom shall I resort, that my soul may be saved? Only to you, Saint John, name your name with grace, for you are greater than all born before the Lord through the Mother of God, for you were deemed worthy to touch the top of the King Christ, who takes away our sins Ra, Lamb of God. Pray to him for my sinful soul, so that from now on, in the first ten hours, I will bear a good burden and accept recompense with the last. To her, the Baptist of Christ, the honest Forerunner, the extreme Prophet, the first martyr in grace, the teacher of fasters and hermits, the teacher of purity and the close friend of Christ! I pray to you, I come running to you: do not deny me from your intercession, but raise me up, cast down by many sins. Renew my soul with repentance, as with the second baptism, since you are the ruler of both: with baptism you wash away ancestral sin, and with repentance you cleanse every bad deed. Cleanse me, defiled by my sins, and force me to enter, even if nothing bad enters, into the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.
On January 19, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the feast of the Epiphany, or as it is otherwise called - Epiphany. On this day, people will come to churches to pray to God and collect holy water. In many cities and villages, processions of the cross will be held to bodies of water so that priests can bless the “waters of nature.” And many more, according to the old Russian tradition, will plunge three times into homemade Jordans - and no frost will interfere with this.
Do we remember the very first Baptism - the Baptism of the Lord?
It happened in a hot country, in the waters of the Jordan River (hence, by the way, the name of the baptismal fonts), not far from Jericho. Strictly speaking, it was not exactly the first, because John the Baptist had already baptized people. And then one day the thirty-year-old Savior came to him. The Prophet John, who preached a lot about the imminent coming of the Messiah, saw Jesus and was very surprised and said: “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” To this Christ replied that “we must fulfill all righteousness,” and received Baptism from John. During Epiphany The sky was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove, and there was a voice from heaven, saying: You are My Beloved Son; My favor is in You!(OK. 3 , 21–22). So everyone understood that God was in front of them. A bright morning star, anticipating the onset of morning - this is approximately what the prophet John is called in one church prayer.
On January 20, the day after Epiphany, the Council of the Baptist and Baptist John is celebrated. What do we know about him?
Saint John the Baptist is the closest predecessor of Christ; he is also called the last prophet, the herald of the coming of the Messiah. On his mother's side, he was a relative of the Savior and was born six months earlier.
The prophet's parents were the priest Zechariah and the righteous Elizabeth - they could not have children for a long time, although they really wanted it. But one day, as the apostle and evangelist Luke narrates, Archangel Gabriel, appearing to 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.
Some may ask: How did Zechariah and Elizabeth's baby survive among the thousands of murdered babies in and around Bethlehem? One of the apocrypha says that he and his mother took refuge in the desert. The Gospel of Luke, which tells more about the Baptist than the other Gospels, is silent about this obvious mercy of God.
From childhood, Saint John was strict and demanding of himself 
person. How could it be otherwise if your life, by the will of the Lord and according to your desire, passes in the wild desert? The Prophet prepared himself for great service by a strict life - fasting and prayer. He wore rough clothes made of camel's hair and ate very little. Wild honey and locusts, a type of locust, supported his flesh. At the age of thirty, the Lord called him to preach to the Jewish people.
Obeying the calling, the prophet John appeared on the banks of the Jordan to prepare the people to accept Christ. Before the holiday of purification, people gathered in large numbers to the river 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 purity, people must be morally cleansed, and thus prepare themselves to accept 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.
With the baptism of the Savior, the prophet John completed his prophetic ministry. He fearlessly and strictly denounced the vices of both ordinary people and the powerful of this world. For this he suffered.
King Herod Antipas, the son of King Herod the Great, ordered the prophet John to be put in prison. The saint denounced Antipas for abandoning his lawful wife and cohabiting with Herodias, his daughter-in-law (she was married to Herod’s brother, Philip). Herodias also really did not like the Forerunner and tried in every possible way to destroy him. And one day she succeeded.
On his birthday, Herod held a feast, which was attended by many noble guests. Salome, the daughter of Herodias, pleased both Herod and his friends so much with her dance that the king swore an oath to give her everything she asked. The dancer, taught by her mother, asked for the head of John the Baptist... The honorable head of the saint, cut off by the executioner, was presented to Herodias.
Our Lord Himself spoke of the righteous John the Baptist: “Among those born of women there has not arisen a greater (prophet) than John the Baptist.” And it is not for nothing that the Holy Forerunner is glorified by the Church as both an Angel and a “bright voice of the Word”; they address him like this: “the ultimate prophet, the first martyr, the teacher of fasters and hermits, the teacher of purity and the neighbor of Christ.”
Someone advises praying to St. John for headaches. But, probably, if you have a headache, it’s better to take some medicine and think about this. The image of the righteous Forerunner and Baptist can be considered as an image of the human conscience. Conscience, which does not allow us to live peacefully in sin, which torments and reproaches, brings us closer to repentance. Like Saint John himself, he is a close friend of Christ.
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh about John the Baptist and his significance for all of us:
According to the testimony of the Lord, no one born on earth was as great as Saint John the Baptist. And when you think about the testimony of the Gospel about him, it really takes your breath away. But not only is it breathtaking - you see in it the image of a man who was able to be so infinitely, so unlimitedly devoted to his God and his earthly calling and who can serve as an example and image for each of us; because each of us, in some sense in relation to those around him, is so often the forerunner of the Lord, the one whom the Lord sent ahead of Himself to bring people a word and a way of life that would prepare them to understand Christ, to accept Christ. And when with our lives we disgrace our testimony, when, looking at us, people cease to believe both in our words and in the words of Christ, then we take on a terrible responsibility. We not only live in judgment and condemnation for ourselves, but we do not draw others with us to where we are called to lead them: to joy, to that joy for which the Lord has left us a deposit and which no one can take away, but which no one, except the Lord cannot give.<…>
And so, before each of us stands this image of the Baptist. Each of us is sent to each other, to each other, as a Forerunner, to say a word so pure, so free from ourselves, from selfishness, from vanity, from everything that makes our every word petty, empty, insignificant, rotten, - do we do this with a willingness to come to naught, if only this person would grow into a living person, the bride of eternal life? And when all this is done, am I ready to say with joy: “Yes, let the last thing be accomplished, let them not remember me, let the bride and groom meet, and I will go down into death, into oblivion, and return to nothingness.” Are we ready for this? If not, how weak is our love even for those we love! What can we say about those who are so often alien and indifferent to us?
Let us often, often look at this majestic but human image of the Baptist, and we will learn how a real, whole person lives, and we will try to live like this, at least in small ways, with all our might, even if there are few of them, but without a trace, to the last drop our living force.
From a sermon in the Church of John the Baptist on Presnya, 1968, Moscow
When is the day of John the Baptist
This holiday is celebrated annually on September 11th. Orthodox Christians pray to the saint for deliverance from illnesses, imprisonment, forgiveness and family happiness.
John was a prophet who predicted the coming of Jesus Christ to Earth. He ended his life as a martyr: the prophet’s head was cut off on the orders of King Antipas and Herodias, because John denounced to all people the king’s vicious relationship with his brother’s wife.
John's head was brought to Antipas on a platter, but even then she continued to denounce the king's sin. Herodias threw her head into the latrine, but John's disciples secretly took it from there and buried it, putting it in a jug. The head of the prophet was found and hidden several times. The days of finding the head are celebrated by the Orthodox Church on March 9 and June 7.
People also call the day of John the Baptist Ivan the Lenten and Golovosek.
What not to do on the day of John the Baptist
The events of this day became firmly established in the life of the people: the name Herodias became a common noun to designate evil, insidious and vicious women, and fevers and shakes received a general name - the daughters of Herod.
September 11 was not called Lenten Ivan out of nowhere: strict fasting is a prerequisite for commemorating the death of a saint. It is prohibited to eat meat, dairy products and eggs, as well as apples and apple juice, watermelons, nuts, onions and other products that are shaped like a head.
Another strict prohibition concerns knives: cutting and cutting off anything on this day is considered a grave sin, so pieces must be broken off with your hands. Also banned on September 11th will be any red drinks, as well as red vegetables, fruits and legumes.
Dancing and fun are prohibited: it is believed that those who dance on this day will take upon themselves the sin of murder.
What can you do on Lenten Day?
On the day of John the Baptist they go to wells to get rid of troubles. You need to cry and scream pain and resentment into the well, and then he will take them for himself.
For a long time people used to eat elongated bread with vegetables, which they broke with their hands.
On this day you can pray for deliverance from illnesses and enemies, as well as for family happiness, prayers for which you can read at the link.
Folk signs and traditions of September 11
The most common sign on Lenten Day is the ban on cutting a head of cabbage. It is believed that if you cut a head of cabbage on this day, blood will drip from the cabbage, just as it dripped from the severed head of the prophet. There is a legend about a woman who disobeyed the ban and cut cabbage. Having brought the head of cabbage into the house, she saw that she was holding the head of her little son in her hands. People warn each other: if you cut cabbage on September 11th, then you will suffer from headaches all year.
You cannot cook anything on this day, otherwise the blood in the body will boil just like water boils, and thoughts will be sluggish, “boiled.”
Weather signs
On Ivan Lenten they watch the birds: if they fly to the South on this day, then winter will be early and chilly. It is also believed that it was after September 11 that autumn finally arrived: “After Lenten Ivan, no man goes out without a caftan.”
A dog following you on this day is a good omen: you cannot drive it away, but you should feed it, and then prosperity will come to your home.
Signs about the harvest
After September 11, they begin to harvest turnips, cabbage and dig up roots, but potatoes should be dug up before that day.
Signs about evil spirits
It is believed that on the day of John the Baptist, witches and devils try to steal grace from people observing fasting, and therefore walk
going home and asking to borrow food and money. You can distinguish a witch from a neighbor who simply asked for salt: bury or hide poppy seeds under the threshold in advance, and then the witch will not be able to enter or leave the house.