1st and 2nd Finding of Holy Head of the Holy Prophet forerunner and Baptist John

1st and 2nd Finding of Holy Head of the Holy Prophet forerunner and Baptist John
Celebration date: 24/02

When Saint John the Forerunner was beheaded by Herod, his honorable head was placed in a shell vessel and hidden in Herod’s residence. After many years, Saint John appeared in the dream of two monks, who had left for Jerusalem with the purpose of worshiping the tomb of the Lord, announcing to them where his honorable head is. And they, after finding her, held her in high esteem. A ceramist took it from them and carried it to the city of Emesina.

But when he died he bequeathed it to his sister. And since then it has successively passed to many, to end up in the hands of a Martian hieromonk named Eustathius and he kept the honorable cart in a cave. From there, it was transferred under Wallentos (364 – 378 AD) to the Panteichion of Bithynia until Theodosios the Great (379 – 395 AD) restored it to the Seventh of Constantinople, where he erected a large and famous temple.

Of course, there are other contradictory traditions about the finding of the honorable head of the Forerunner. According to another version, the honorable chariot was found in Emesa in 458 AD, during the reign of Leo I (457 – 474 AD), while others accept that it was found in 760 AD. and was transferred to the church of Agios Ioannou Prodromos in Emesa. From there he moved to Constantinople, during the reign of Michael III (842 – 867 AD) and the patriarchate of Ignatius.

We also find news about the holy relics of the Holy Forerunner in various chronographs. Zonaras mentions that in 968 AD Nikiforos Phokas found in Edessa in Mesopotamia “the body of John the Baptist covered with blood”, which he moved to Constantinople. And five years earlier he died in Constantinople from Veria in Syria, around April 963 AD, part of the robe of the Holy Forerunner. According to another testimony, Nikiforos Fokas found in Crete “the garment of the Prophet made of camel’s hair, and it was charmed around the neck”.

The Synaxis of the finding of the Holy Head of Saint John the Baptist was held in his Prophet’s House, which was located in the location called Forakiou.