The Patriarch of Romania: „Saint John the Baptist represents the conscience of justice, of pure life, of holiness in a decayed world”

On 29 August 2011, the Romanian Orthodox Church celebrates the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist. He is known especially for the holiness of his life, for his serious ascetics and ardent crave of justice and heavenly things.

The hymnologists of the Church called him “angel in human body”, while the Orthodox calendar dedicated him three celebration days, having been the most celebrated personality of the Old Testament.

His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, delivered a sermon at Saint Mary – Jercalai Monastery, county of Prahova. As Trinitas Radio station informs us, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church evoked the teachings of Saint John the Baptist: “Saint John was a man of divine justice in the human life. He wanted to improve a society corrupted, greedy, and full of human passions and decay. He was really loved by the people who felt the Spirit of God present in him. So, Saint John represents the conscience of justice, pure life, holiness in a decayed world, in the world of the sin, the world of moral spiritual degradation. He was certainly courageous. His courage came from his strong faith, much fasting and prayer as well as from his desire to accomplish and announce the will of God.

His Beatitude has also shown why this day is a fasting one: “The Church ordered this day as a fasting one because Saint John the Baptist died because of the greed, debauchery and drunkenness that dulled the mind of King Herod Antipa who had Saint John the Baptist beheaded at the request of Salomeea, Herodiada’s daughter, whom Saint John the Baptist scolded and judged because she had become Herod Antipa’s wife, as she was the wife of his brother Filip.”

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