In
the Orthodox Church the custom was established that on the day following
the Great Feasts of the Lord and the Mother of God, would be remembered
those saints who most essentially participated in whichever the
sacred event. And thus, on the day following after the Theophany
of the Lord, the Church honours he that participated directly in
the Baptism of Christ, indeed placing his own hand upon the head
of the Saviour. Saint John, the holy Forerunner and Baptist of
the Lord, termed by our Lord the greatest of the prophets, both
concludes the history of the Old Testament and opens up the epoch
of the New Testament. The holy Prophet John gave witness concerning
the arrival on earth of the Only-Begotten Son of God, incarnated
humanly in the flesh. Saint John was deemed worthy to baptise Him
in the waters of the Jordan and he was a witness of the Theophany
or Manifestation of the MostHoly Trinity on the day of the Baptism
of the Saviour. The holy Prophet John was a kinsman of the Lord
on His mother's side, the son of the Priest Zachariah and Righteous
Elizabeth. The holy Forerunner of the Lord, John, was born six months
earlier than Christ Jesus. The Archangel Gabriel was the messenger
of his birth, in the Jerusalem Temple revealing to his father, that
for him a son was to be born. Through the prayers offered up beforehand,
the child was filled with the Holy Spirit. Saint John prepared himself
in the wilds of the desert for his great service by a strict life,
by fasting, prayer and sympathy for the fate of God's people. At
the age of about 30 years he came forth preaching repentance. He
appeared at the banks of the Jordan, by his preaching to prepare
the people for acceptance of the Saviour of the world. In the expression
of churchly song, Saint John was a "bright morning star," whose
gleaming outshone the shining of all the other stars, announcing
the coming morning of the day of grace, illumined with the light
of the spiritual Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Having baptised the
sinless Lamb of God, Saint John soon died a martyr's death, beheaded
by the sword on orders of king Herod in fulfilling the request of
his daughter Salome. (About Saint John the Baptist, vide: Mt 3:1-16,
11:1-19, 14:1-12; Mk 1:2-8, 6:14-29; Lk 1:5-25, 39-80, 3:1-20, 7:18-35,
9:7-9; Jn 1:19-34, 3:22-26).
On this day is commemorated also the Transfer of the Right Hand
of the holy Forerunner from Antioch to Tsargrad (956) and the Miracle
of Saint John the Forerunner against the Hagarites (Mahometans)
at Chios:
The body of Saint John the Baptist was buried in the Samaritan city
of Sebasteia. The holy Evangelist Luke, in making the rounds preaching
Christ in various cities and towns, came in time to Sebasteia, where
they gave over to him the right hand of the holy Prophet John, the
very hand with which he had baptised the Saviour. The Evangelist
Luke took it with him to his native city of Antioch. When the Mahometans
centuries later seized possession of Antioch, a deacon named Job
transported the holy hand of the Forerunner from Antioch to Chalcedon.
From there, on the very eve of the Theophany of the Lord, it was
transferred to Constantinople (956) and kept thereafter. In the
year 1200 the Russian pilgrim Dobrynya -- who was later to be come
the holy Archbishop of Novgorod Antonii (commemorated 10 February),
saw the right hand of the Forerunner in the imperial palaces. From
the Acts of the Saints it is known, that in the year 1263 during
the seizure of Constantinople by the Crusaders, the emperor Baldwin
gave over one bone from the wrist of Saint John the Baptist to Ottonus
de Cichon, who then gave it over to a Cistercian abbey in France.
The right hand continued to be kept in Constantinople. And at the
end of the XIV thru beginning XV Centuries the holy relic was seen
at Constantinople in the Peribleptos monastery by the Russian pilgrims:
Stefan Novgorodets, deacon Ignatii, the cantor Alexander and deacon
Zosima. But with the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453,
sacred objects were gathered up at the whim of the conqueror and
preserved in the imperial treasury, all locked up.
In the Acts of the Saints is presented clear testimony that in the
year 1484 the right hand of the holy Forerunner was given away by
the son of the Mahometan sultan Bayazet to the Rhodes knights to
gain their good-will, since a dangerous rival for Bayazet -- his
own brother, had situated himself amongst them. And about this event
there speaks also a contemporary participant, the Rhodes vice-chancellor
Wilhelm Gaorsan Gallo. The Rhodes knights, having established their
base on the island of Malta (in the Mediterranean Sea), then transferred
to Malta the sacred relic they had received. When the Russian emperor
Paul I (1796-1801) became grand-master of the Maltese Order in honor
of the holy Prophet John, the right hand of the Baptist, part of
the Life-Creating Cross and the Philermian Icon of the Mother of
God were transferred in the year 1799 [because of the Napoleonic
threat] from the island of Malta to Russia, to the chapel at Gatchina
(commemorated 12 October). In the same year these sacred items were
then transferred into the church in honor of the Saviour Icon Not-Made-by-Hand
at the Winter palace. And for this feast was compiled a special
service.
Besides the Assemblage ["Sobor" or "Synaxis"] of the venerable glorious
Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, John, the Russian Orthodox
Church celebrates his memory on the following days: 23 September
-- his Conception (2 BC); 24 June -- his Birth (1 BC); 29 August
-- his Beheading (+c.32); 24 February -- the First (IV) and Second
(452) Finding of the Head; the Third Finding of the Head (c.850);
12 October -- the Transfer of the Right Hand from Malta to Gatchina
(1799).