On 10 September, the eve of the commemoration of the Beheading of St. John the Forerunner, Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan was a guest of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Convent.
His Eminence led the festal All-Night Vigil in the Trinity Cathedral, and his celebration lent special solemnity to the service of this great feast.
...We are celebrating a tragic event: the execution and death of St. John the Forerunner. The beheading, the abuse he suffered both in life and after death. His precious head was taken to the foulest of places, and his body was desecrated. Yet we Christians still celebrate this day, because a terrible death at a feast, by order of a drunken ruler, was not the end of a righteous life. His great struggle and his martyr's death acquire meaning in the perspective of eternity, as does everything we do in this life. John the Forerunner entered the Kingdom of his God and to this day imparts courage and faith to us...
On the day of the feast itself His Eminence celebrated the early Divine Liturgy in the side-chapel of St. John the Baptist.
This day, though sorrowful, is counted among the great feasts established by the Orthodox Church.
In order to honour worthily the memory of the saint, a great faster and desert-dweller, a strict fast is prescribed. This one-day fast should also remind us of the ruinousness of the passion of drunkenness and intemperance.
The Lord Jesus Christ Himself said of the holy Forerunner that he is the greatest among those born of women and the first among the prophets.
Having baptized Jesus Christ in the waters of the Jordan, the Prophet John continued his service to the Lord, calling people to repentance. He openly denounced King Herod because, having abandoned his lawful wife, he was living unlawfully with his brother's wife, Herodias.
On his birthday Herod gave a feast at which Salome, the daughter of Herodias, danced before the guests and pleased the king. In gratitude Herod swore before everyone to give her whatever she asked. At the malicious prompting of her mother, the dancer demanded the head of John the Baptist on a platter. For the sake of his guests and his rash oath, Herod ordered the holy prophet to be beheaded and the head given to Salome.
The upper left side-chapel of the Trinity Cathedral of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Convent is dedicated to St. John the Baptist, to the Third Finding of his precious head. For this reason all the feasts of the Forerunner of the Lord are celebrated with particular solemnity at Diveyevo.
At the end of the Liturgy Abbess Sergia (Konkova) thanked Metropolitan Vikenty for celebrating the Divine Liturgy, wished him the intercession of the Mother of God and of Venerable Seraphim in his archpastoral labours, and presented him with a prosphora and the icon "The Appearance of the Most Holy Theotokos to Venerable Seraphim at the Spring".
The head of the Metropolis of Tashkent addressed words of gratitude to Mother Abbess, the clergy and the sisters of the convent. Before his sermon His Eminence read out the message of Patriarch Kirill on the occasion of the Day of Sobriety. In his hierarchal word, taking as an example St. John the Forerunner, a true disciple of Christ, Metropolitan Vikenty showed that gentleness and not repaying evil with evil, forgiveness of all and kindness help us attain the Kingdom of Heaven.
