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St. Zacharias and Righteous Elizabeth (1st c.)
parents of St John the Forerunner.
The story of the holy parents of the Forerunner is told in the first chapters of Luke’s Gospel.
Life
The story of the holy parents of the Forerunner is told in the first chapters of Luke’s Gospel. Several of the Fathers say that Zacharias is the one who, the Lord said, was slain between the temple and the altar (Matthew 23:35); because he continued to call the Mary the Mother of God a virgin even after she bore Christ; and because his son had escaped the slaughter of the innocents ordered by Herod. St Elizabeth had hidden him in a cave in the desert; he remained in the wilderness from that time until he began to preach by the Jordan.