The Beheading of St. John the Baptist

On August 29 the Church remembers the death of the Forerunner — beheaded by Herod Antipas at the demand of his stepdaughter Salome, after Herod had imprisoned him for naming the king's adulterous marriage what it was. John "must decrease," he had said, that Christ may increase. His martyrdom embodied the lesson.

The scene is among the most dramatic in the Gospels: a banquet, a dance, a rash oath, and a prophet's head brought on a platter. Herod himself had listened to John gladly and knew him to be a righteous man, yet lacked the courage to resist the trap of his own vanity. The Baptist's death is a permanent warning that truth spoken to power often costs everything — and that such a cost is not too high.