Icon of John the Baptist. Icon of John the Baptist (Forerunner): Orthodox handwritten icons

The prophet John the Baptist (Forerunner) is the most revered saint after the Divine Mother for a Christian. His icons are in every Orthodox church. The life of the Forerunner is exciting and shaking with the steadfastness of a saint. The history of the iconography of the prophet is also very interesting, but in order to better understand it, one must know the way of John the Baptist.

Conception of the Precursor

The birth of the prophet was foretold by St. Malachi, saying that the Forerunner would come before the Messiah and point to the Savior.

The father of John the Baptist was Saint Zacharias, a priest and a righteous man. Mother, Elizabeth, was the sister of Anna, who gave birth to the Virgin Mary. Both parents of the Forerunner kept the commandments of God, led a blameless existence. Throughout their lives, Elizabeth and Zachary dreamed of having a child. But the Lord heard their prayers when they were old.

The father of the future prophet did not believe the angel who announced the imminent birth of his son, for which he was punished. The priest was numb and could not say a word more.

The Birth of the Prophet

For five months, Saint Elizabeth hid her pregnancy, fearing ridicule, until the Virgin Mary came to her with the joyful news of the conception of the Savior.

After the birth of the prophet on the eighth day, all the relatives came to perform circumcision, considered a necessity. By offering Elisabeth to call his son by the name of his father according to custom, they heard a refusal and were very surprised at such a decision. They asked Zechariah. He wrote that the child's name is John. At once the ability to speak and hear returned to the priest. Rapidly spread the rumor about this miracle.

The icon of John the Baptist in honor of his Christmas is found in almost all Orthodox churches.

Salvation of the Prophet and Return to the People

King Herod was also aware of the birth of the Forerunner. And after the news of the appearance of the Messiah was completely frightened. He assumed that John was the Son of God. Therefore, he ordered the murder of the prophet and, just in case, all babies up to two years in Bethlehem and its environs.

This news caused the righteous Elisabeth to flee with her son into the wilderness. Zechariah, not having discovered the place of his wife's stay with John, was killed. Forty days later the mother of the prophet died.

John the Baptist lived in the desert until he was thirty. He ate wild honey and acrid (according to some sources, this is a locust species, on others - plant food, which was eaten by the poorest layers of the population), drank water, his clothes were made of camel hair. But the time has come for the prophet to appear to the people.

At the behest of the Lord, the prophet came to Jordan with a call to sincerely repent of his sins, correct himself and do good deeds, since the time of the appearance of the Messiah has come. Those who followed his instructions, John baptized.

While preaching in the wilderness, the Forerunner heard about the miracles done by Jesus, and sent his disciples to know whether it was not everyone waiting for him for so long. After that, Christ responded to the prophet as an Angel who prepares the way for him. Hence the icon of John the Baptist, depicting the Forerunner with wings and a scroll. The angel of the desert, who began the sermon ...

The Baptism of Jesus and the Beheading of the Prophet

Undoubtedly, the baptism of John the Baptist was not fully Christian sacrament. But it was the Forerunner who sowed the seeds of faith in people and prepared the way for the Savior.

At the time of John's baptism of Jesus himself, the Holy Spirit descended as a dove to the earth, and the voice of the Lord announced that the Savior was the Son of God. The icon of Christ, depicting his baptism in the Jordan River, clearly shows the miraculous signs of the coming of the Messiah. The Prophet John fulfilled his mission of the messenger angel.

And, in addition, he vehemently denounced the vices of all, regardless of the situation in society. Even the tsar accused of abandoning his wife and cohabitation with his brother's brother Herodias, for which he paid a price. By the order of King Herod the prophet was executed, having chopped off his head. But the Lord punished those responsible for the death of the Forerunner. The daughter of the concubine of King Salomia, on whose request the saint was executed, fell through a frozen river. Her head remained on the surface and was cut off by sharp floes, and the body was not found at all. The king, with Herodias, who persuaded her daughter to ask the execution of the prophet, the Roman emperor exiled to Spain, where the earth opened and swallowed them both.

Feast of John the Baptist

The church has several dates for the memory of the saint:

• October 6 (September 23) - in honor of the conception of John the Precursor;
• July 7 (June 24) - Christmas Prophet;
• September 11 (August 29) - the truncation of the head of John the Baptist;
• January 20 (January 7) - in honor of baptism by the prophet of the Savior;
• March 9 (February 24) - in memory of the first and second acquisition of the head of John the Baptist;
• June 7 (May 25) - the third acquisition of the head of the prophet;
• October 25 (October 12) - transfer to Gatchina from Malta, the gums of the hand of the Baptist.

All dates of memory are called "Cathedral of John the Baptist". Why do they say that? These days believers gather in temples for glorification in the prayers of the saint.

The Image of the Prophet

Each icon of John the Baptist is written according to the following signs of the saint: a middle-aged man (about 32 years old), thin in build and face, which emphasizes his righteous life and holiness; With a dark complexion from constant sun exposure to the skin. His face corresponds to the Jewish type. The saint has a black beard with his braids. Its length is shorter than the average. The same color curly and thick hair, divided into strands. Clothes made of camel wool, leather belt.

The fact that the saint is particularly revered by Christians, influenced the variety of subjects of icons with the image of a prophet. The earliest ones were written in the first half of the third century with the display of the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist on the Jordan River. For comparison: the first icon of the Mother of God was written in the second century in the Roman catacombs.

Iconography of the Prophet John the Baptist

The first icon of the saint, depicting only his own, was written in the second half of the sixth century. This is the image of the prophet in full growth, he is in a hair shirt and with a scroll in his left hand. On top of the icon, to the right and to the left, are medallions with images of the Savior and the Virgin.

In the tenth-eleventh centuries, the icon of John the Baptist appeared, inclined in prayer to Christ. In this plot, the prophet was portrayed to the right of the Savior, and from the thirteenth century on to the left.

At the end of the thirteenth century, the image of John the Baptist, the Angel of the Desert, appeared in the iconography of the prophet. This was preceded by several stages. Thus, in the tenth-eleventh centuries, the time when the prophet was called to serve was depicted. Here John the Baptist, in the background of a mountainous country, bent down in prayer. Then, by the middle of the eleventh century, the image of a saint with an ax on a tree appeared and a scroll in his hand. In addition, at the end of the 11th - the beginning of the 12th centuries, an iconography was formed reflecting the finding of the head of the prophet. In the same period, the desert, ax, scroll and head in the vessel were combined into one icon with the image of a praying Forerunner. And, finally, at the end of the thirteenth century this composition was supplemented with the depiction of the wings of St. John the Baptist. This is due to the statement about the prophet in the Gospel of Luke. According to this book of the New Testament, God said that he sends his angel to prepare the way for the Savior.

Plots of iconography of the prophet and distribution of his image in Russia

There are compositions with the participation of the entire holy family, on which the images of John, Jesus, and their parents are depicted.

Among the handwritten Orthodox images, there is an icon of the Mother of God praying with the Forerunner of Christ for the human race. Evidence of the greater veneration of the prophet than of the apostles is the intercessory prayer at the liturgy in the temples, when the name of the saint is pronounced immediately after the mention of the Virgin.

In Russia icons with the image of a prophet began to spread very widely during the period when Ivan the Terrible was king. Among the authors of the images of John the Baptist one can distinguish Andrei Rublev, Theophanes the Greek, Procopius Chirin, Guria Nikitin, and A. Ivanov.

We can say that the icon of Christ stands alongside the image of the holy prophet, for the Forerunner is especially revered among Christians. This John the Baptist informed the world about the long-awaited coming of the Messiah, with his example and preaching, lit a light of faith in the hearts of people, prompting him to purify himself and receive the Savior. Our patron and Angel of God is the holy prophet John the Baptist!