Tomorrow we mark the beheading of St. John: a strict fast is prescribed, and this is what you must not do

Photo: Masanori Jošida

Orthodox believers tomorrow, September 11, will mark the beheading of Saint John the Baptist. Believers spend the day the Baptist was killed in prayer, abstinence, and strict fasting. This holiday is best known to people like St. John’s Autumn or Jovan Glavosek, and Serbs respect it very much.

This day, classified among the glories, remembers the death of Saint John, the Prophet, the Forerunner and the Baptist, executed by order of the Emperor Herod Agrippa, and at the request of his wife Herodias.

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By order of the emperor, the saint’s head was severed or “severed” and carried on a plate in front of his stepdaughter, the player Salomé.

During the night, John’s disciples secretly took the body of the master and buried it in Sebastia. The head of the saint is buried separately, in a secret place. Later it was transferred to Jerusalem, and in the time of the Byzantine Empress Theodora, the miraculous head of the Baptist was transferred to Constantinople.

The beheading is always marked on the day the church consecrated over his tomb at Sevastija is consecrated by Emperor Constantine and Empress Jelena.

The church prescribes a strict fast and abstinence, and the popular traditional calendar prohibits all red food, because it recalls the color of the baptized blood of the Baptist.

You shouldn’t even take a knife in your hands. It is also said that it is a good day to gather herbs. Fairs are held in many places. No hard work is done, neither in the field nor at home.

On this holiday, 105 years ago, the blessed Patriarch Pavle was born.