The miraculous events surrounding John the Baptist and what Jesus revealed about his Precursor testified to the esteem that was accorded to John in the early Church. His Nativity is celebrated six months before Christmas, when the Savior was born in Bethlehem. Both those births, according to the older Julian calendar, are observed on the eighth day before the first of the following month. In that prior designation, it would be labeled as dies VIII ante Kalendas. The Kalends (from calare, “proclaim”) was the first day of the month. Counted inclusively, days were reckoned backwards from three points by when they occurred before the Kalends, Nones, or Ides of the month. The days were not enumerated after the Kalends but counted as so many days before the following Nones; then, days after the Nones were numbered as being before the Ides, and those after as so many before the next Kalends. Seemingly inconvenient, counting days backwards actually is the same as saying that there are so many days until the new moon, the first quarter, and the full moon.
Imprisoned, with his wilderness preaching effectively over, and facing the end of his life, that is when John asked his disciples to go and see Jesus with this simple message, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Put succinctly, John was wondering, Have I wasted my life? Was I preaching the right thing? Will it all amount to anything? In reply, Jesus, quoting the prophet Isaiah, renders John’s disciples a message to comfort the Baptist. In essence, you could say that Jesus delivers what would be called today John’s eulogy, “As they were going off, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing? Those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces. Then why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: ‘Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you.’ Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” Mt 11:7-11).
While John the Baptist is venerated both in the East and the West, the day commemorating His birth differs. John is usually identified as the Forerunner or Pródromos and/or Precursor, a title used also in the West. Even today, the Orthodox celebrate the Baptist’s feast on January 7 due to the Eastern practice of honoring saints connected with what is the festal object of one of the feasts of the Lord on the following day. Thus, because Epiphany is observed in the East on January 6, focusing primarily on the baptism of Jesus, then in John’s salvific role as the Lord’s baptizer, a liturgical assembly or synaxis is celebrated in John’s honor on the next day. Yet, the feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist was originally associated with Epiphany, but its observance was moved to June 24 in the West and June 25 in the East.
In the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, John’s life is summarized this way, “St. John the Baptist, the son of Zachary and Elizabeth, straddles both the Old and New Testaments. His parents were reckoned as “just before God” (Lk 1, 6). John the Baptist is a major figure in the history of salvation. While in his mother’s womb, he recognized the Savior, as he was borne in his mother’s womb (cf. Lk 1, 39-45); his birth was accompanied by great signs (cf. Lk 1, 57-66); he retired to the desert where he led a life of austerity and penance (cf. Lk 1, 80; Mt 3, 4); “Prophet of the Most High” (Lk 1, 76), the word of God descended on him (Lk 3, 2); “he went through the whole of the Jordan district proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Lk 3,3); like the new Elijah, humble and strong, he prepared his people to receive the Lord (cf. Lk 1, 17); in accordance with God’s saving plan, he baptized the Savior of the World in the waters of the Jordan (cf. Mt 3, 13-16); to his disciples, he showed that Jesus was “the Lamb of God” (John 1, 29), “the Son of God” (John 1, 34), the Bridegroom of the new messianic community (cf. John 3, 28-30); he was imprisoned and decapitated by Herod for his heroic witness to the truth (cf. Mk 6, 14-29), thereby becoming the Precursor of the Lord’s own violent death, as he had been in his prodigious birth and prophetic preaching. Jesus praised him by attributing to him the glorious phrase “of all children born to women, there is no one greater than John” (Lk 7, 28) (DPPL, n 224).
Nature and dignity 