The Nativity of St. John the Baptist

Celebrated on June 24, six months before Christmas, the feast marks the birth of John the Baptist — the only saint other than Jesus and Mary whose birthday the Church keeps. Six months earlier the angel had told Mary that Elizabeth, in her old age, had conceived; this is the answer to that promise. Augustine notes the symbolism: from this day the daylight begins to wane, as it grows after Christmas — "He must increase, but I must decrease."

The birth of John was itself a miracle — his father Zechariah struck mute for doubting the angel's word, his mother Elizabeth barren until old age. When the child was born and Zechariah wrote "His name is John" on a tablet, his tongue was loosed and he sang the Benedictus, the great canticle of dawn that the Church still prays at every morning office. In John's nativity the Church sees the last great act of the Old Covenant giving way to the New.