The Commemoration of the Honorable Pioneering Prophet, the Decapitation of “John the Baptist”, which is held on August 29 every year, was held with the participation of congregation members in the Orthodox Churches in Mersin and Hatay.
“He Was a Clean Sacrifice for God’s Law”
The last prophet of the Old Testament, the voice screaming in the desert, the Prophet John, who was born from Elizabeth, a sterile woman with a miraculous birth, was martyred by being beheaded in a dramatic game for speaking and defending the truth and the just. He became a clean sacrifice for the law of God.
This painful event was commemorated with a mass in Mersin Orthodox Church, as the 29th of August coincided with a Sunday this year. Mersin Orthodox Church Father İspir Teymur preached about this sad event.
The Mass in the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Iskenderun was officiated by Father Yusuf Nicholas Papasoğlu, the Mass in the Antakya Saints Peter and Paul Greek Orthodox Church was officiated by Fathers Dimirti Doğum and Can Dellüller, the Mass in the Altınözü/Sarılar Mahallesi Saint Georgios Greek Orthodox Church was officiated by Fathers Cebrail Kuşoğlu and Abdullah Papasoğlu, Arsuz Father Dimitri Yıldırım officiated the Mass in St. John’s Greek Orthodox Church.
At the Remembrance Masses, passages from the Bible were read from the tragic event that happened to St. John the Baptist, and prayers were said together.
The Head of John the Baptist Is Brought with a Tray
The son of Herod the Great, Herod Antipas, the governor of Galilee, divorced his wife unjustly and wanted to marry Herodia, the wife of his dead brother Filippos Antipas. John the Baptist objects to this and exclaims that it is against God’s law for his brother to marry his wife and that it is not permissible. The Governor of Galilee organizes a birthday celebration and invites many senior administrators and governors. At this invitation, Herodia’s daughter Salome dances in front of the guests and wins the approval of Governor Herodes. He says to the girl, “Ask whatever you wish from me”. The girl, on the other hand, wants the head of John the Baptist, who is imprisoned, on a plate with her mother’s suggestions. Governor Herod was very upset by this request, but he could not go back on his promise in front of the guests and had John the Baptist beheaded. He brings it to Salome with a tray, who is dancing. This dramatic martyrdom event is commemorated in all Orthodox Churches on August 29 each year.
In the Holy Orthodox Churches, congregation fasts and religious marriages are not performed today as a tribute to this sad event. Among the people, traditionally, on August 29, nothing is cut with a knife in houses as a tribute to this painful and dramatic event. (SAT-7 TÜRK/HATAY-MERSIN)
