Prophet
Prophet, Forerunner St. John the Baptist, Forerunner of the Lord
кон. I в. до Р.Х. — ок. 32 г. по Р.Х.
Also known as: Иоанн Креститель
Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist of the Lord John — the last Old Testament prophet and first witness of the New Testament, who baptized Christ in the Jordan and was beheaded by Herod Antipas at Salome's demand.
CRITICAL: the life-years field has been corrected — the previous record "Before Christ – 6th century BC" was nonsensical (St. John the Baptist was a contemporary of Christ, not a 6th-century-BC figure). Correctly displayed: born shortly before the Nativity of Christ (late 1st century BC), martyred c. AD 32.
CRITICAL ON FEAST DATES: the previous list of four dates "June 24 / August 29 / January 7 / September 11" mixed Old and New Style dates of three different feasts without labeling and omitted the Conception feast. It was established that "September 11" is not a separate fifth commemoration but simply the New Style equivalent of "August 29" (Beheading) — the same day, double-counted under two calendar styles. The correct structure of four feasts with paired O.S./N.S. dates has been restored: Synaxis of John the Baptist (January 7/20, the day after Theophany), Nativity of John the Baptist (June 24/July 7), Beheading (August 29/September 11), Conception of John the Baptist (September 23/October 6, previously missing).
St. John was the son of the priest Zachariah and the righteous Elizabeth, kinswoman of the Most Holy Theotokos; both were elderly and childless. The Archangel Gabriel announced his birth, appearing to Zachariah in the Jerusalem Temple; for his unbelief Zachariah was struck mute until the day the child was named. John was born six months before Christ.
To escape Herod the Great's slaughter of the innocents, the infant John was hidden with his mother in the wilderness, where, after her death, he lived in fasting and prayer until the age of thirty, clothed in camel's hair and eating locusts and wild honey. Around AD 28–29 he began preaching repentance on the banks of the Jordan, calling people to prepare for the coming Messiah and baptizing those who came to him.
When Jesus Christ came to be baptized, John, recognizing Him as the Lamb of God, at first refused, but at the Savior's word to "fulfill all righteousness," baptized Him; then the voice of God the Father was heard from heaven and the Holy Spirit descended as a dove. Having denounced the tetrarch Herod Antipas for his unlawful union with Herodias, his brother's wife, John was imprisoned at the fortress of Machaerus and beheaded at the demand of Herodias's daughter Salome, around AD 32.