Relics of John the Baptist
On this day we celebrate the first and second
invention of the holy head of holy glorious prophet, Forerunner
and Baptist John.
The holy and venerable, even among the angels, the head of the
Forerunner was first found by two monks in Herod's house through
the appearance and revelation of the Forerunner himself, while
these men were on a pilgrimage to the life-giving Tomb of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. A certain potter received the holy
head from the monks and brought it to the city of Emesa. Because
that potter knew that the holy head had brought him good fortune,
he used to honour it excessively and, when he died, he left it
to his sister instructing her neither to move it from its place
nor to show it to anybody else but to honour and venerate it.
When the potter's sister had died, many people received the holy
head in succession. Finally, this precious treasure ended up in
the possession of an Arian hieromonk, Eustathios by name, who
was sent away from his cave, where he used to live, by the orthodox,
because he ascribed the healings, which the holy head worked,
to his heresy. So, he used to say that it was working healings,
because he who held it was an Arian. By divine dispensation (oeconomia),
when that heretic had been driven away from that place, he left
the holy head in the cave, where it lay hidden till the time of
Marcellus the archimandrite and Uranios the bishop of Emesa, i.e.
till AD 431 when Valentinian the New was king. Then, many people
received divine revelations about the head of the Forerunner.
So, it was found for a second time in a pot and was brought into
the church by the fore-mentioned Uranios, bishop of Emesa, where
it worked various healings and wondrous miracles.