The Prophet and Baptist of the Lord is one of the most revered saints in the Orthodox Church. People turn to John the Baptist, whose prayer always reaches the ears of God very soon, in various everyday troubles. However, pilgrims suffering from headaches and mental illnesses are especially often asked for his help.
Christmas Saint
On the life of John the Baptist we can learn only from the gospel text. The holy saint of God was born at the beginning of the first century AD into a pious Christian family. His parents were the righteous Zechariah and Elizabeth. The birth of the great New Testament prophet was foreshadowed by one miraculous event.
Priest Zechariah was already in extreme old age, when the archangel Gabriel descended to him during the service and announced the imminent appearance of his son. The father of the future preacher of Christ strongly doubted the words of the heavenly messenger. For this, the Lord punished him with dumbness.
Shortly, Elizabeth was really able to conceive a son. When the woman was already in the last months of pregnancy, the Blessed Virgin Herself, who was her distant relative, visited her house. This encounter was detailed by Evangelist Luke.
According to the testimony of the latter, the baby of Elizabeth, hearing only the greeting of the Mother of God, “jumped joyfully in the womb.”
Name giving
Elizabeth's son was born six months before the Savior. On the eighth day, following the prescription of the Jewish law, the parents took the baby to the Temple in Jerusalem, where he was to be named. Elizabeth, following the command of the Spirit of God, named her firstborn son John. The relatives present at the temple were surprised, since no one in their family had ever had such a name. However, the father, who was nearby, took up a wooden tablet and wrote the word "John" on it. At the same moment, Zechariah regained the gift of speech and began to praise the merciful Lord. The holy prophet announced to all those gathered in the temple about the imminent coming of the Messiah into the world. It will be entrusted to John the Baptist himself to proclaim the appearance of the Savior. The prayer of the righteous will be able to lead many people to heartfelt repentance and confession of their sins.
On that same day, the news of the miraculous birth of a baby went around Hebron. Many residents believed that little John was the future ruler of the Jewish people.
And joy finally settled in the house of the baby's parents. At that time, families unable to startchildren were despised by the people. The Jews believed that dishonor flourished in their homes, for which the Lord would certainly punish with childlessness.
Death of Zechariah
But very soon Zechariah and Elizabeth had to go through a new test. King Herod, who ruled at that time in Judea, having learned from the magi who came to him about the birth of the long-awaited Messiah, ordered to kill all newly born babies. The groan and cry of the unfortunate mothers could reach the house of little John. To save her only child from cruel punishment, Elizabeth hastened to take refuge in the Hebron mountains. Zechariah remained in the city and continued to perform services. When Herod's servants reached Hebron, they first looked into the Temple in Jerusalem. Seeing Zacharias, they began to demand that he betray the place of hiding of his son. But the holy righteous man only meekly said that he was not afraid of death at the hands of the wicked. The latter, having heard such an answer, immediately killed the Forerunner's parent. Zechariah fell between the altar and the altar, and his blood turned to stone as an eternal reminder of the crime committed by Herod.
Escape to the Hebron Mountains
The warriors, leaving the body of the holy prophet in the temple, hurried in search of the rest of his family. Very soon they discovered the righteous Elizabeth with the baby near one of the mountains. The saint, seeing the murderers of her husband, according to Church Tradition, cried out to grief for help, and she, parting, hid her and John from the eyes of the soldiers. Forty days after the death of the holy prophet, Elizabeth herself reposed. But the mercy of God and this time wasrevealed to little John the Baptist, whose prayer in the near future was to lead to the salvation of the Jews. The angel of the Lord replaced the baby's father and mother, bringing him drink and water every day.
Baptism of the Savior
The first time the prophet John appeared to people in the wilderness. His appearance was a real event for the Jewish people. The holy saint of God proclaimed to people about the imminent coming of Christ, before which each of the mortals was bound to bring the fruits of sincere repentance. His sermon was so deep and sincere that people from different parts of the country came to listen to it. Listening to the fervent speeches of the prophet of God, filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, they discovered in themselves more and more sins, which they immediately hurried to confess before the Forerunner. Finally, the time has come to come to him and the Savior Himself, Who, like the rest of the people, chose the holy righteous as Baptist.
The execution of the prophet
John has always been a true zealot of the piety of Christ and never bowed even before the mighty of this world. Upon learning that the young ruler of the country Herod was illegally cohabiting with Herodias, the wife of his brother, he immediately hastened to rebuke him in front of all the people. The wife, filled with rage, decided at all costs to destroy the saint of God, whom even the king himself was afraid of. For this, she sent her daughter Salome to one of the festivities arranged by Herod. The latter performed a dance in front of the ruler, which is verypleased. Herod promised to fulfill any of her requests, and the girl immediately announced her mother's bloody desire. The frustrated king ordered the beheading of John the Baptist.
The body of the prophet was buried by his disciples. Subsequently, the head of the saint appeared to the pilgrims three times. Prayer to John the Baptist helped in its time to save many shrines from destruction, including the relics of the saint of God himself. During the persecution of the Church of Christ, the head of the prophet miraculously disappeared, and then reappeared, thus avoiding reproach from wicked hands.
Prayer to John the Baptist for a headache
During his lifetime, the holy righteous man repeatedly showed his help to people. However, even after death, the Baptist of the Lord continues to participate in the arrangement of many human destinies. Perhaps none of the saints, except for the Mother of God, stands as close to the Lord as St. John the Baptist. His prayer helps to get rid of many bodily ailments. People suffering from frequent incessant migraines, first of all, try to turn to the saint of God. More than a thousand testimonies of the miraculous intercession of the Lord's Baptist have already been collected.
Prayer to John the Baptist for a headache once helped a twenty-year-old parishioner of the Moscow Stavropegial Monastery of St. John the Baptist to get rid of a constant migraine. Another even more miraculous event took place in the same monastery in 2002. One woman was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She had to face a difficult operation with a trepanation of the skull. Then againfar from faith, the patient came to the locally revered image of the saint. After praying at the icon of the Baptist, she was re-examined. No tumor was found. Doctors only shrugged their hands in bewilderment.
Prayer to John the Baptist the Forerunner in spiritual ailments
However, the saint is resorted to not only during bodily illnesses. Prayer to John the Baptist to calm the soul is the surest remedy for sudden despondency and anxiety.
One woman, who was baptized at a late age, dreamed of bringing her children to the temple. Her daughter was able to gain faith pretty soon. But the son stubbornly did not want to go to church. Then the woman, desperate to change anything, went to her confessor for help. The latter, after listening to her, advised her to turn to John the Baptist every day. The prayer of the saint soon helped bring his son to the walls of the temple. The young man found faith and was baptized.
The holy saint of the Lord is always in a hurry to respond to any prayer request. But people who turn to him for help need to remember what God's prophet taught in the first place during his lifetime. Saint John appealed above all to repentance. After all, only through the sacrament of confession can an Orthodox Christian unite with the Lord and become a true member of the Church of Christ.
