Only the Apostle Luke wrote about the Forerunner’s childhood. His parents were the priest Zechariah and Elizabeth, an elderly barren couple. The apostle describes how one day the Archangel Gabriel announced to the priest that he would have a son: “Many shall rejoice at his birth, for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord”. According to the Gospel, St. John was born six months before Jesus Christ and is His distant relative.

John the Baptist managed to avoid death during the massacre of the innocents in Bethlehem. Together with his mother, he settled in the desert, and when he grew up, he began to prepare himself for the service of Christ, reading prayers and observing fasting. John wore simple clothes, girdled with a leather belt, fed on honey of wild bees and locusts. The saint had stayed in the desert until the age of thirty, when Jesus told him to deliver the main sermon to the people.

John openly condemned the king Herod for living with Herodias – his brother’s wife. For this, the ruler of Galilee became angry and locked the Baptist in prison. During a feast in honour of the ruler’s birthday, the daughter of Herodias, Salome, enchanted Herod and his guests with a dance. For this, the king promised to give her everything she wanted. By arrangement with Herodias, Salome demanded St. John’s head on a platter. Herod treated the prophet with respect and was distressed by the daughter’s desire. But he kept his oath: a guard cut John’s head off. The queen left the saint’s desecrated head in the street. 

St. John’s disciples buried his body in the city of Sebastia. According to life testimonies, afterwards his truncated head was wonderfully found three times: for the first time on the Mount of Olives, then in Jerusalem, and for the third time – on the territory of the Roman Empire. The parables about this led to the appearance of a separate type of icons – the Honourable Head of St. John the Forerunner.

In the folk tradition, the Nativity of John merged with the pagan rituals for the feast of Ivan Kupala. The popular name came from an association with ‘bathing’ and the baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan.