The First and Second Finding of St. John the Forerunner’s Head is commemorated on this day according to the Church tradition. First Finding of the head of John the Baptist After many years, the estate where St. John’s head was buried came into the possession of the pious nobleman Innocent, who began to build a church there. When they were digging a ditch for the foundation, a vessel with the precious head of John the Baptist surfaced. Innocent learned about the greatness of the holy relic from the signs of grace that came from it. This is how the First Finding of the Head took place. Innocent kept it with the greatest reverence, but before his death, fearing that the holy relic would be desecrated by infidels, he again hid it in the very place where he had found it. After his death, the church fell into disrepair and collapsed. Second Finding of the head of John the Baptist Many years later, during the reign of Equal-to-the-Apostles Tsar Constantine, his mother Saint Helena restored the holy places of Jerusalem. Many pilgrims began to flock to the Holy Land, among whom two monks from the East came to venerate the Holy Cross and the Holy Sepulcher. St. Constantine entrusted them prayerfully to John the Baptist to find his honorable head. We only know that this was revealed to them in a dream and that after finding the precious head in the place indicated, they decided to return back. However, God’s will was different. On the way, they met a poor potter from the Syrian city of Emesa (now Homs), who out of poverty was forced to go to a neighboring country in search of work. The monks, having found a traveling companion, out of negligence or laziness, entrusted him with carrying the bag with the holy relic. He went along carrying it until Saint John the Baptist appeared to him and commanded him to leave the careless monks and flee from them along with the bag entrusted to him by Providence himself. The Lord, for the sake of the head of John the Baptist, blessed the potter's house with all sufficiency. Throughout his life, the potter remembered what he owed and to whom; he was not proud and gave alms abundantly; and shortly before his death, he handed over the precious head to his sister, commanding her to pass it on to God-fearing and virtuous Christians. However, according to the Providence of God, the precious head, passing for a long time from one person to another, fell into the hands of Hieromonk Eustathios, infected with the heresy of Arius. Sick people who came to him received healing from him, not knowing that the reason for this was not the latter’s imaginary piety, but the grace emanating from the hidden head. Soon, his wickedness was revealed, and he was expelled from Emesa. Around the cave where the hieromonk lived and in which the head of John the Baptist was buried, a monastery was formed. After much time, by the grace of God, the second finding of the precious head occurred. We know this for certain from the description of both Marcellus, the very Archimandrite of the monastery in Emesa, and from the life of venerable Matrona (November 9), written by St. Simeon Metaphrastes. According to the first legend, the precious head was revealed to him on February 18, 452. A week later, Bishop Uranius of Emesa discovered its veneration, and on February 26 of the same year, it was transferred to Emesa to the newly created church in the name of John the Baptist. All these events were accompanied by both healing of the sick and the miraculous revelation of the unbelief of some clergy. After some time, the precious head of St. John was transferred to Constantinople, where it remained until the iconoclast heresy. At this time, pious Christians, leaving Constantinople, secretly the head of John the Baptist took with them and hid it in Comana (it is not known which Comana is meant: Cappadocian or Pontic). |
