September 5: Saints Zacharias and Elizabeth are celebratedtranslated

Today, September 5, the Orthodox Church honors the memory of Prophet Zacharios, who was a priest and married to Elizabeth.

Lambros Skontzos, Theologian, writes

Saints Zacharias and Elizabeth: The parents of the Holy Forerunner One of the most respected holy couples of the New Testament is that of Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of the Holy Forerunner. We get important information about their lives and activities from the holy Gospel of Luke, which describes in detail the birth of John the Forerunner.

They were of Jewish origin and lived in the years of Herod the Great (37 BC – 4 BC). Zacharias came from the house of Abijah, the eighth of the twenty-four houses into which the descendants of Eleazar and Ithamar were divided (1 Chron. 24,10). And his wife Elizabeth came from the priestly tribe of Aaron (Luke 1:5) and was a relative, possibly a first cousin, of the Virgin (Luke 1:36). The evangelist Luke mentions that "they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and righteousness of the Lord blameless" (Luke 1,6). They belonged to that small and select portion of the pious and righteous Jews, the...