John the Baptist ( Archived) (11)

The Orthodox Church celebrates todays day as saint Johns day



The Eastern Orthodox faithful believe that John was the last of the Old Testament prophets, thus serving as a bridge between that period of revelation and the New Covenant. They also teach that, following his death, John descended into Hades and there once more preached that Jesus the Messiah was coming, so he was the Forerunner of Christ in death as he had been in life. According to Sacred Tradition, John the Baptist appears at the time of death to those who have not heard the Gospel of Christ, and preaches the Good News to them, that all may have the opportunity to be saved. Orthodox churches will often have an icon of St. John the Baptist in a place of honor on the iconostasis, and he is frequently mentioned during the Divine Services. Every Tuesday throughout the year is dedicated to his memory.

When is Saint Boban's Day??

John is patron saint of Xewkija-Gozo, Malta, which remember him with a great feast on the Sunday nearest to June 24. A band march takes place on Thursday of that that week and is the best one in Gozo. Saint John the Baptist is the patron saint of Puerto Rico, and its capital city San Juan bears his name. In 1521, the island was given its formal name "San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico", following the usual custom of christening the town with both its formal name and the name which Christopher Columbus had originally given the island, honouring John the Baptist. The indistinct use of "San Juan Bautista" and "Puerto Rico" for calling both the city and the island led to a reversal in practical use by most inhabitants due largely to a map-making error. Therefore by 1746 the name for the city (Puerto Rico) had become that of the entire island, while the name for the island (San Juan Bautista) had become the name for the city. The official motto for the island of Puerto Rico also references the saint, Joannes Est Nomen Eius (translated, "John is his name").
He is also a patron saint of Jordan, French Canada, and Newfoundland. The Canadian cities of St. John's, Newfoundland (1497) and Saint John, New Brunswick (1604) were both named in his honor. In the UK Saint John the Baptist is the patron saint of Penzance, Cornwall. His feast day is June 24, celebrated in Quebec as the Fête Nationale du Québec, and in Newfoundland as Discovery Day.
~Wikipedia~

Loved reading that Grand....Thanks for sharing such info.....

hey sweetie!!!

It's January 7th in my Eastern Orthodox Church...

More about the plant St John's Wort.........

Culpeper describes the nature of St John's wort as "under the celestial sign Leo, and the dominion of the Sun". Its solar nature is shown by its golden yellow flowers, with their stamens radiating like rays from the Sun. So powerful was this image that in mediaeval times the plant acquired the name Sol Terrestris (literally, 'Terrestrial Sun'). The flowering time of the herb made it ideal to celebrate the solstice, while later on in the season - after the flowers are over - the leaves become mottled with reddish spots. According to tradition, St John was beheaded on August 29, in response to the request by Salome, the daughter of Herod, made at her father's birthday feast. Once the St John's wort flowers are over, the plant appears "beheaded" and the red spots can be visualised as drops of blood spilt on to the leaves. Thus the characteristics of the plant were seen to echo the fate of its patron saint.

Hey sweet Star.....been missing you!!!!

I love the way ancient pagan rites, and Christian rites, tie in with modern medicine...........

The celebration of the Summer solstice used all this symbolism when the plant was gathered on the eve of St John's day. The herb could be worn about the person to ward off witchcraft and sorcery and was also hung about doors and windows to keep evil away from the house.

In England and Wales, St John's wort was suspended over doorways along with green birch, long fennel, orpine and white lilies, to guard against intruding malevolent entities. The medicinal use of St John's wort was particularly favoured by the Knight's Hospitallers, who were involved with guarding the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem and protecting pilgrims as they travelled to the Holy Land. They also cared for those wounded during the Crusades and this is where the herb's reputation as a wound plant was established. When it is recognised that St John the Baptist was the patron saint of the Hospitallers, then this solar herb, with his signature, would have been especially favoured to heal the wounds. From its reputation as a cure-all, comes the obscure name of the plant 'tutsan' which is a corruption of the French La toute-saine - meaning 'all-heal'.


POTENT HEALING OIL

Contemporary scientific research confirms these ideas, as the volatile oil found in the plant has been shown to have anti-bacterial and anti-viral actions, alongside a range of other substances that collectively help the regeneration of damaged tissue and reduce inflammation.

Bacterial infection, a likely concomitant of sword and stab wounds, makes such injuries slow to heal, even preventing healing altogether, thus the volatile oil would significantly have contributed to the herb's mediaeval reputation as a vulnerary.

Volatile oils are readily soluble in vegetable oils, whereas they are practically insoluble in water - hence the following preparation recorded in Gerard, which is still used by herbalists today, can be seen to specifically extract this very important antiseptic component of the plant:

"The leaves, flowers and seeds stamped, and put into a glass with oyle Olive, and set in hot Sunne, for certaine weekes together, and then strained from those herbs, and the like quantatie of new put in and sunned in like manner, doth make an oyle of the colour of blood, which is a most precious remedy for deepe wounds, and those that are through the body, for sinues that are pricket or any wound made with a venomed weapon."

The setting of the glass in the 'hot Sunne' would warm the 'oyle' enhancing the extraction of the volatile oils and in turn its pharmacological action. However, in the minds of the mediaeval physicians a subtle alchemy was at work. The Sun, seen as the source of all light and vitality, shining into the oil was visualised as potentiating the healing action of the solar plant. Whatever one's attitudes towards the way ancient physicians understood the herbal world, their symbolic methodology in this case has worked out an antiseptic salve centuries before microbiological science and the development of antibiotics.