Saint John the Baptist

Saint John the Baptist was born about six months before Jesus to the elderly priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, who were cousins of the Virgin Mary. His birth was miraculous — both parents were well past childbearing age. The angel Gabriel announced his birth to Zechariah in the temple and said, "He will be great in the sight of the Lord... and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born."

When Mary came to visit Elizabeth while both were pregnant, the baby John leaped in Elizabeth's womb at the sound of Mary's greeting — already acknowledging and rejoicing at the presence of the Lord Jesus. John grew up in the wilderness and began his public ministry living in the desert, wearing clothes of camel hair and eating locusts and wild honey, calling people to repentance.

Enormous crowds came to hear him preach at the Jordan River. When Jesus came to be baptized, John declared, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" He later said of Jesus: "He must increase, and I must decrease." John was eventually imprisoned and beheaded by King Herod at the request of Salome. Jesus said of him, "Among those born of women, there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist." He is one of the most honored saints in the Coptic Church.