The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist
Feast Day: August 29
The Feast of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, also called the Passion of Saint John the Baptist, is observed on August 29th and commemorates the martyrdom of the greatest of the prophets, the man whom Jesus declared to be more than a prophet and the greatest born of women, at the hands of Herod Antipas. The account of his death, preserved in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, is one of the most vivid and morally instructive narratives in the New Testament.
John had been imprisoned by Herod Antipas because he had openly denounced Herod's marriage to Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, as unlawful. The courage required to make this denunciation of a powerful ruler was immense, and it cost John his freedom and eventually his life. The Gospels note that Herod both feared and respected John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and he listened to him gladly, though what John said perplexed him. He kept John imprisoned rather than executing him, both because he feared John's popular following and because of his own ambiguous admiration for the prophet.
The occasion of the martyrdom was Herod's birthday banquet. Salome, the daughter of Herodias, danced before Herod and his guests and pleased him so much that he promised her with an oath anything she asked up to half his kingdom. Prompted by her mother Herodias, who had long desired John's death, she asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Herod was grieved but, unwilling to break his oath before his guests, sent a soldier to the prison who beheaded John and brought his head on a platter to the girl, who gave it to her mother.
John's disciples came and took his body and buried it, and then went and told Jesus. The martyrdom of John stands as one of the clearest testimonies in all of Scripture that fidelity to God's truth, spoken boldly before the powerful, may demand the ultimate sacrifice. He is the patron of all who suffer for speaking truth to power, and his feast is a day of fast in many traditions.