Prophet Prophet Daniel

CRITICAL IMAGE NOTE: 3 of 6 previous images (daniel_1.jpg, daniel_2.jpg, daniel_3.jpg) have been removed — verification showed all three to be icons of Right-Believing Prince Daniel of Moscow (1261–1303), son of St. Alexander Nevsky — a completely different saint with his own separate feast, confused here by mere name coincidence. The 3 images (prophet_daniel_*.jpg), correctly captioned in English "PROPHET DANIEL"/"HOLY PROPHET DANIEL," have been retained.

Daniel came from a noble, royal lineage of the tribe of Judah. As a youth he was among the Israelite nobility deported to Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of Jerusalem (c. 605 BC), along with three companions — Ananias, Azarias, and Misael. Selected for training in Chaldean wisdom at the royal court, he and his companions refused the king's food and wine, subsisting on vegetables and water, and after ten days appeared healthier than their peers.

God gave Daniel the gift of interpreting dreams and visions: he alone could recall and interpret Nebuchadnezzar's forgotten dream of a great statue with a gold head, silver chest, bronze belly, iron legs, and clay-and-iron feet — symbolizing the succession of world empires giving way to God's eternal kingdom. When Nebuchadnezzar erected a golden idol and demanded worship, the Three Youths refused and were cast into a fiery furnace, but were miraculously preserved unharmed by an angel.

Under King Belshazzar, Daniel alone could read and interpret the mysterious handwriting on the wall ("Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin"), foretelling Babylon's fall. Under the Persian king Darius, jealous courtiers had Daniel cast into a den of lions for continuing to pray toward Jerusalem; God shut the lions' mouths and he emerged unharmed. Daniel also received apocalyptic visions of future kingdoms and the Messiah, recorded in his prophetic book. He is honored as one of the four Major Prophets of the Old Testament, together with the Three Youths.