 |
22x30cm / 8.6x11.8inch.
Egg tempera. |
+ Την
επομένη ημέρα των Θεοφανίων καθιερώθηκε να εορτάζουμε, τη μνήμη του
πανίερου προφήτη Ιωάννη Προδρόμου. Ο Ιωάννης ήταν γιος του ιερέα Ζαχαρία
και της Ελισάβετ. Μέχρι τα τριάντα του χρόνια, ζει ασκητική ζωή στην
έρημο της Ιουδαίας, αφιερωμένη ολοκληρωτικά στην προσευχή, τη μελέτη και
την πνευματική και ηθική τελειοποίηση. Το ρούχο του ήταν από τρίχες
καμήλας, στη μέση του είχε δερμάτινη ζώνη και την τροφή του αποτελούσαν
ακρίδες και άγριο μέλι. Με μορφή ηλιοκαμένη, σοβαρός, αξιοπρεπής και
δυναμικός, ο Ιωάννης φανέρωνε αμέσως φυσιογνωμία έκτακτη και υπέροχη.
Είχε όλα τα προσόντα μεγάλου και επιβλητικού κήρυκα του θείου λόγου.
Έτσι, με μεγάλη χάρη κήρυττε «τα πλήθη». Κατακεραύνωνε και χτυπούσε
σκληρά τη φαρισαϊκή αλαζονική έπαρση, που κάτω από το εξωτερικό ένδυμα
της ψευτοαγιότητας έκρυβε τις πιο αηδιαστικές πληγές ψυχικής σκληρότητας
και ακαθαρσίας. Γενικά, η διδασκαλία του συνοψίζεται στη χαρακτηριστική
φράση του: «Μετανοείτε· ήγγικε γαρ ή βασιλεία των ουρανών»,
προετοιμάζοντας, έτσι, το δρόμο του Κυρίου μας Ιησού Χριστού για το
σωτήριο έργο Του. Όταν ο Χριστός άρχισε τη δημόσια δράση του, ο κόσμος
άφηνε σιγά-σιγά τον Ιωάννη και ακολουθούσε Αυτόν. Η αντιστροφή αύτη,
βέβαια, θα προκαλούσε μεγάλη πίκρα και θα γεννούσε αγκάθια ζήλειας και
φθόνου σ' έναν, εκτός χριστιανικού πνεύματος, διδάσκαλο ή φιλόσοφο.
Αντίθετα, στον Ιωάννη προκάλεσε μεγάλη χαρά και ευφροσύνη. Η γιορτή αυτή
του Ιωάννου του Προδρόμου, για τον όποιο ο Κύριος είπε ότι κανείς
άνθρωπος δε στάθηκε μεγαλύτερος του, καθιερώθηκε τον 5ο μ.Χ. αιώνα.
Επίσης,
σήμερα εορτάζουμε και το γεγονός της μεταφοράς στην Κωνσταντινούπολη
της τιμίας Χειρός του Αγίου Ιωάννου του Προδρόμου, που έγινε κατά τον
ακόλουθο τρόπο: Όταν ο Ευαγγελιστής Λουκάς πήγε στην πόλη Σεβαστή, όπου
τάφηκε ο Πρόδρομος, παρέλαβε από τον τάφο του το δεξί του χέρι, το
μετέφερε στην Αντιόχεια, όπου χάριτι Θεού επιτελούσε πολλά θαύματα. Από
την Αντιόχεια, το Ιερό χέρι, μετακομίστηκε στην Κωνσταντινούπολη το 957,
από τον διάκονο Ιώβ. Εκεί ο φιλόχριστος αυτοκράτορας, αφού την
ασπάστηκε με πολύ σεβασμό, την τοποθέτησε στα βασιλικά ανάκτορα. Η
σύναξη των πιστών, σε ανάμνηση του γεγονότος της μετακομιδής της τιμίας
Χείρας του Προδρόμου στην Κωνσταντινούπολη, ετελείτο στην περιοχή του
Φορακίου (ή Σφωρακίου).
Επίσης, αυτή τη μέρα, εορτάζετε και το Θαύμα του Προδρόμου στη Χίο κατά των Αγαρηνών.
Ἀπολυτίκιον Ἦχος β’.Μνήμη
δικαίου μετ᾽ ἐγκωμίων· σοί δέ ἀρκέσει ἡ μαρτυρία τοῦ Κυρίου Πρόδρομε·
ἀνεδείχθης γάρ ὄντως καί Προφητῶν σεβασμιώτερος, ὅτι καί ἐν ῥείθροις
βαπτίσαι κατηξιώθης τόν κηρυττόμενον· ὅθεν τῆς ἀληθείας ὑπεραθλήσας,
χαίρων εὐηγγελίσω καί τοῖς ἐν ᾅδῃ, Θεόν φανερωθέντα ἐν σαρκί, τόν
αἴροντα τήν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου, καί παρέχοντα ἡμῖν τό μέγα ἔλεος.
--------------------------------
+In the Orthodox Church it is customary, on the day following the Great
Feasts of the Lord and the Mother of God, to remember those saints who
participated directly in the sacred event. So, on the day following the
Theophany of the Lord, the Church honors the one who participated
directly in the Baptism of Christ, placing his own hand upon the head of
the Savior.
Saint John, the holy Forerunner and Baptist of the
Lord, whom the Lord called the greatest of the prophets, concludes the
history of the Old Testament and opens the era of the New Testament. The
holy Prophet John bore witness to the Only-Begotten Son of God,
incarnate in the flesh. Saint John was accounted worthy to baptize Him
in the waters of the Jordan, and he was a witness of the Theophany of
the Most Holy Trinity on the day of the Savior’s Baptism.
The
holy Prophet John was related to the Lord on His mother’s side, the son
of the Priest Zachariah and Righteous Elizabeth. The holy Forerunner,
John, was born six months before Christ. The Archangel Gabriel announced
his birth in the Temple at Jerusalem, revealing to Zachariah that a son
was to be born to him.
Through the prayers offered beforehand,
the child was filled with the Holy Spirit. Saint John prepared himself
in the wilds of the desert for his great service by a strict life, by
fasting, prayer and sympathy for the fate of God’s people.
At the
age of thirty, he came forth preaching repentance. He appeared on the
banks of the Jordan, to prepare the people by his preaching to accept
the Savior of the world. In church hymnology, Saint John is called a
“bright morning star,” whose gleaming outshone the brilliance of all the
other stars, announcing the coming dawn of the day of grace, illumined
with the light of the spiritual Sun, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Having
baptized the sinless Lamb of God, Saint John soon died a martyr’s
death, beheaded by the sword on orders of King Herod at the request of
his daughter Salome. (On Saint John the Baptist, see Mt.3:1-16, 11:1-19,
14:1-12; Mark 1:2-8, 6:14-29; Luke 1:5-25, 39-80, 3:1-20, 7:18-35,
9:7-9; John 1:19-34, 3:22-26). The Transfer of the Right Hand of the
holy Forerunner from Antioch to Constantinople (956) and the Miracle of
Saint John the Forerunner against the Hagarenes (Moslems) at Chios:
The
body of Saint John the Baptist was buried in the Samaritan city of
Sebaste. The holy Evangelist Luke, who went preaching Christ in various
cities and towns, came to Sebaste, where they gave him the right hand of
the holy Prophet John, the very hand with which he had baptized the
Savior. The Evangelist Luke took it with him to his native city of
Antioch.
When the Moslems seized Antioch centuries later, a
deacon named Job brought the holy hand of the Forerunner from Antioch to
Chalcedon. From there, on the eve of the Theophany of the Lord, it was
transferred to Constantinople (956) and kept thereafter.
In the
year 1200, the Russian pilgrim Dobrynya, who later became Saint Anthony,
Archbishop of Novgorod (February 10), saw the right hand of the
Forerunner in the imperial palace. From the Lives of the Saints we learn
that in the year 1263, during the capture of Constantinople by the
Crusaders, the emperor Baldwin gave one bone from the wrist of Saint
John the Baptist to Ottonus de Cichon, who then gave it to a Cistercian
abbey in France.
The right hand continued to be kept in
Constantinople. And at the end of the fourteenth to the beginning of the
fifteenth centuries, the holy relic was seen at Constantinople in the
Peribleptos monastery by the Russian pilgrims Stephen of Novgorod, the
deacon Ignatius, the cantor Alexander and the deacon Zosimus. When
Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, sacred objects were gathered
up at the the conqueror’s orders and kept under lock in the imperial
treasury.
In the Lives of the Saints is clear testimony that in
the year 1484 the right hand of the holy Forerunner was given away by
the son of the Moslem sultan Bayazet to the knights of Rhodes to gain
their good will, since a dangerous rival for Bayazet, his own brother,
had allied himself with them. A contemporary participant, the
vice-chancellor of Rhodes, Wilhelm Gaorsan Gallo, also speaks of this
event. The knights of Rhodes, having established their base on the
island of Malta (in the Mediterranean Sea), then transferred the sacred
relic they had received to Malta.
When the Russian Tsar Paul I
(1796-1801) became Grand Master of the Maltese Order in honor of the
holy Prophet John, the right hand of the Baptist, part of the
Life-Creating Cross and the Philermos Icon (October 12) of the Mother of
God (from Mt Philermos on the island of Rhodes) were transferred in
1799 from the island of Malta to Russia [because of the Napoleonic
threat], to the chapel at Gatchina (October 12). In the same year these
sacred items were transferred into the church dedicated to the Icon of
the Savior Not Made by Hands at the Winter Palace. A special service was
composed for this Feast.
Besides the Synaxis of the honorable,
glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John, the Russian Orthodox
Church celebrates his memory on the following days: September 23, his
Conception; June 24, his Nativity; August 29, his Beheading; February
24, the First and Second Finding of his Head; May 25, the Third Finding
of his Head; October 12, the Transfer of his Right Hand from Malta to
Gatchina (1799).
Troparion — Tone 2
The memory of the righteous is celebrated with hymns of praise, /
but the Lord’s testimony is sufficient for you, O Forerunner. / You were
shown in truth to be the most honorable of the prophets, / for you were
deemed worthy to baptize in the streams of the Jordan Him whom they
foretold. / Therefore, having suffered for the truth with joy, / you
proclaimed to those in hell God who appeared in the flesh, / who takes
away the sin of the world, and grants us great mercy.
