08 — Veneration and Iconography
The Church’s keeping and depicting of the Forerunner: the cycle of six annual feasts — the Conception (Sept. 23), the Nativity (June 24), the Beheading (Aug. 29), the Synaxis (Jan. 7), the First and Second Finding of the Head (Feb. 24), and the Third Finding (May 25) — together with the weekly Tuesday commemoration; and the iconography of John as the winged “Angel of the Desert,” the ascetic in camel’s hair bearing his own severed head, and his fixed place at Christ’s left in the Deesis, interceding for the world second only to the Theotokos.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Forerunner)
No saint but the Mother of God is more abundantly commemorated than the Forerunner, and this section gathers the structure of that veneration. The first file walks the six feasts and their themes — and treats the several “findings of the head,” with their rival relic traditions, as the Church’s tradition with attestation pinned, not as settled history. The second treats the iconography: the wings that depict the “messenger/angel” of Malachi, the scroll of repentance, the platter, and the Deesis, in which John stands with the Theotokos on either side of the enthroned Christ as the two great intercessors.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Cycle of Feasts | The six feasts of the Forerunner (Conception Sept. 23, Nativity June 24, Beheading Aug. 29, Synaxis Jan. 7, First & Second Finding Feb. 24, Third Finding May 25) and the Tuesday commemoration; the histories and rival relic claims of the findings of the head, reported as tradition with attestation pinned. |
| The Angel of the Desert | The iconography of the Forerunner: the winged “Angel of the Desert” (Mal. 3:1, angelos; Mark 1:2), the ascetic dress and the scroll of repentance, the icon of John bearing his own head, and the Deesis in which he stands with the Theotokos interceding before Christ. |
See Also
- The Conception and Nativity — the feasts that open the cycle
- The Forerunner in Hades — the theology the iconography carries
- Icons and Iconoclasm — the theology of the holy image
- The Church Calendar — the calendar in which the feasts are kept
References
- The Festal Menaion and the menaion volumes for September, June, August, January, February, and May. Trans. Mother Mary and Kallistos Ware. London: Faber & Faber, 1969.
- Ouspensky, Leonid, and Vladimir Lossky. The Meaning of Icons. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1982 (the Deesis and the icon of the Forerunner).