The Nativity of St. John the Baptist

The Birth of Saint John the Baptist by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Oil on Canvas, Completed in 1655

Solemnity (1969 Calendar): June 24

Double of the I Class (1955 Calendar): June 24

Today is the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. Six months before the birth of Our Lord, we celebrate the birth of St. John the Baptist to Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary's cousin. It was St. John the Baptist who prepared the way for Our Lord and bore witness to Him.

 In "Christian Feasts and Customs," Father Weiser writes of the importance of the Feast of St. John's Nativity:

"The Council of Agde, in 506, listed the Nativity of Saint John among the highest feasts of the year, a day on which all faithful had to attend Mass and abstain from servile work. Indeed, so great was the rank of this festival that, just as on Christmas, three Masses were celebrated, one during the vigil service, the second at dawn, the third in the morning. In 1022, a synod at Seligenstadt, Germany, prescribed a fourteen-day fast and abstinence in preparation for the Feast of the Baptist. This, however, was never accepted into universal practice by the Roman authorities."

Today was, for some time, a Holy Day of Obligation.

Gospel Reading:

Now the time came for Elizabeth to be delivered, and she gave birth to a son. And her neighbors and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they would have named him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said, "Not so; he shall be called John." And they said to her, "None of your kindred is called by this name." And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, "His name is John." And they all marveled. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea; and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, "What then will this child be?" For the hand of the Lord was with him...And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness till the day of his manifestation to Israel.

Luke 1:57-66, 80

Prayer:

O God, Who hast made this day worthy of honor by the birth of blessed John: grant to Thy people the grace of spiritual joys, and direct the minds of all the faithful into the way of eternal salvation. Through our Lord.

Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal