The Man from Ein Karem

Happy Birthday, Saint John

June 24:  Birthday of Saint John the Baptist

According to Christian tradition, John the Baptist was born in Ein Karem, leading to the establishment of many churches and monasteries there.  In 2010 the neighborhood had a population of 2,000.  It attracts three million visitors a year, one-third of them pilgrims from around the world.

According to the Bible, Mary went "into the hill country, to a city of Judah" when she visited the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth. .   Theodosius (530) says that the distance from Jerusalem to the place where Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, lived is five miles. The Jerusalem Calendar (dated before 638) mentions the village by name as the place of a festival in memory of Elizabeth celebrated on the twenty-eighth of August.

How Christians used to celebrate St. John’s Birthday:

            Go to Mass at midnight, dawn, and 3pm

            Burn “St. John’s Fire” (bonfires) on every village hilltop on St. John’s Eve

            Postpone all battles until tomorrow (Battle of Fontenay in 841 was postponed by one day)

            Make a pilgrimage to his head which may rest in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria

            Make a pilgrimage to one of the many churches which claim to have some of his bones such as in Sophia, Bulgaria.

St. John’s day of martyrdom will be celebrated on August 29.