The feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist at the Patriarchate of Jerusalem (VIDEO)

On Tuesday, July 7, 2026, the Church celebrated the Feast of the Nativity of the Holy, Glorious Forerunner and Baptist John.

On this feast, the whole Church, and especially the Church of Jerusalem, commemorates and relives the events concerning the Holy Forerunner as recounted by the Evangelist Luke (Luke 1:1–80), namely his birth to the Prophet Zechariah and Elizabeth, who were barren, as well as the muteness of his father and the restoration of his speech when he wrote: “His name is John” (Luke 1:63, NKJV).

In honour of John the Forerunner, “among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11, NKJV), a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy was celebrated at the Holy Monastery of the Holy Forerunner in Ein Karem, belonging to the Moscow Patriarchate. The service was presided over by the representative of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Metropolitan Hesychios of Capitolias, with con-celebrants the Archimandrite Vassianos, Head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem (MISSIA), Russian-speaking priests, and Archdeacon Mark.

Vespers and the Divine Liturgy were also celebrated at the Holy Monastery of the Holy Forerunner in Ein Karem,…