Happy Feast Day St. John the Baptist!

 “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” 

St. John the Baptist

Our bonfire one year....

27 Years on June 24th!

St. John the Baptist is the Patron Saint of Baptism, coverts, farriers, French Canada, many cities and other causes from around the world. Today is the Vigil of the Feast and tomorrow is the Feast Day - and our Anniversary!

"Saint John the Baptist was the son of Zachary, a priest of the Temple in Jerusalem, and Elizabeth, a kinswoman of Mary who visited her. He was probably born at Ain-Karim southwest of Jerusalem after the Angel Gabriel had told Zachary that his wife would bear a child even though she was an old woman. Saint John lived as a hermit in the desert of Judea until about A.D. 27. When he was thirty, he began to preach on the banks of the Jordan against the evils of the times and called men to penance and baptism "for the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand". He attracted large crowds, and when Christ came to him, John recognized Him as the Messiah and baptized Him, saying, "It is I who need baptism from You". When Christ left to preach in Galilee, John continued preaching in the Jordan valley. Fearful of his great power with the people, Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Perea and Galilee, had him arrested and imprisoned at Machaerus Fortress on the Dead Sea when John denounced his adultrous and incestuous marriage with Herodias, wife of his half brother Philip. Saint John was beheaded at the request of Salome, daughter of Herodias, who asked for his head at the instigation of her mother. Saint John inspired many of his followers to follow Christ when he designated Him "the Lamb of God," among them Andrew and John, who came to know Christ through John's preaching. Saint John is presented in the New Testament as the last of the Old Testament prophets and the precursor of the Messiah. His feast day is June 24th and the feast for his beheading is August 29th."

Most all Feast Days of Saints celebrate the day they died and went to Heaven. St. John the Baptist has two Feast Days - his birth and his death.

Bonfires on the beach, (or on mountain tops or wherever!) and/or fireworks: part of the traditional celebration worldwide.

The bonfires symbolize Saint John revealing the 'light' - Christ.

 'The fourth gospel describes the Baptist as "a man sent from God [...] to bear witness to the light so that through him everyone might believe."'

Bonfires on the beach in Spain, possibly.

Depiction of St. John's Head being presented to Herod, the King.

St. John and Christ. When Elizabeth was pregnant with St. John, Mary, pregnant with Jesus, visited her. There are literately millions of this 'visitation' depicted in paintings, sculpture, drawings and other mediums - many by great artists over the past 2000 years. 'The Visitation' is also one of the decades of the Rosary. 

Artistic painting of St. John the Baptist being born.

xox