The Church today celebrates the birth of Jesus’ senior relative, John the Baptist. John’s birth is described in the Bible (Luke 1:57-80).

Fully aware of John’s doubts, Jesus offered this assessment: “Of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist.” John was a humble, strange, struggling man.

Today on the feast of the birth of St. John the Baptist, the Holy Father greeted pilgrims gathered under the hot June sun in St. Peter’s Square for the Sunday recitation of the Angelus.

John and Jesus are, of course, not the same person, but their connection is meaningful, and John’s death at the hands of powerful rulers in some ways foreshadows what is to come for Jesus.

This painting was once a panel from the important five-panel altarpiece commissioned by Queen Isabella for the Carthusian monastery of Miraflores near Burgos, site of the royal tombs of her parents ...

Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée (1725–1805), “St. Elizabeth and St. John the Baptist With Zachary” (photo: Public Domain) Sophia Feingold Blogs June 25, 2022 ...

A likeness of St. John the Baptist is seen in stained glass at Caldwell Chapel on the campus of The Catholic University of America in Washington May 25, 2021. His feast day is June 24.