Finding of the Head of Saint John the Forerunner

Life

The great and glorious John the Forerunner was beheaded at the desire and instigation of the malicious Herodias, the wife of Herod. When John was beheaded, Herodias commanded that his head not be buried together with his body, for she feared that the fearsome prophet might somehow rise again. She therefore took his head and buried it in a certain hidden and dishonored place, deep in the ground. Her handmaid was Joanna, the wife of Chuza, a steward of Herod. The good and pious Joanna could not endure that the head of God's man should remain in a dishonored place; she secretly dug it up, brought it to Jerusalem, and buried it on the Mount of Olives. Not knowing of all this, King Herod, when he heard of Jesus and how He was working great miracles, became afraid and said: "This is John, whom I beheaded; he is risen from the dead" (Mark 6:16). After some time, a certain distinguished nobleman, having believed in Christ, forsook his rank and worldly vanity and was tonsured as a monk, and as a monk, bearing the name Innocent, settled on the Mount of Olives in the very place where the head of the Forerunner had been buried. Wishing to build himself a cell, he dug deep and found an earthen vessel with a head within it, concerning which it was revealed to him mysteriously that it was the Forerunner's. He venerated it and buried it in that same place. By God's providence that wonderworking head afterward passed from hand to hand, sinking into the darkness of oblivion and again being disclosed, until at last, in the time of the pious Empress Theodora — mother of Michael and wife of Theophilus — and in the time of the Patriarch Ignatius, it was translated to Constantinople. Many miraculous healings occurred from the head of the Forerunner. It is noteworthy that while he was alive, "John did no miracle" (John 10:41), yet his holy relics were granted a gracious wonderworking power (see January 7; May 25; June 24; August 29; and September 23).

From the Hymn of Praise

### SAINT JOHN THE FORERUNNER