Saint John the Baptist was six months older than Jesus, but died one year before Him. Saint John the Baptist’s head was cut off by the wicked Jewish tetrarch, Herod Antipas, at the order of a horrid woman named Herodias. The head of Saint John the Baptist was given to Herodias by her daughter Salome, and served on a dish to her and her guests at table. Herodias took a bodkin and stabbed, again and again, the tongue that had rebuked her for her viciousness and impurity. This was the tongue that had greeted Our Lord with the salutation, “Behold the Lamb of God Who takest away the sins of the world.”
“He must increase and I must decrease,” said Saint John the Baptist, referring to Our Lord. By way of a symbol of this truth, Our Lord increased in death by being raised on a Cross on the hill of Calvary. Saint John decreased by being decapitated. Our Lord was six months younger than Saint John the Baptist, but lived six months longer than he did. Our Lord was crucified, and Saint John the Baptist beheaded, on the same day — March 25 — one year apart.
See also: The Last Dance of Salome
Coptic icon of the Beheading of St John the Baptist (source)
