Ode 1. Tone 8. Crossing the sea.**

**Exapostilarion. Tone 2. As the Disciples.**

**Another. Same Irmos.**

**Katavasia.**

**Kontakion. Tone 5.**

Glory. **Tone 4. Joseph was amazed.**

Let us sing praise of the Prophet who appeared from a barren womb, the sacred Forerunner of the One who was born ineffably from a virgin womb.

**Theotokion.**

**Katavasia.**

Glory. **Tone 6.**

Though you had surpassed the bounds of nature, you preserved the laws of righteousness when you re­buked a lawless union, unafraid of the arrogance of kings.

**Theotokion.**

**Katavasia.**

And holy oil is given to the Brethren.

Nourished on the milk of the law, sealing, like a seal of the law, the legislation of lawful union, you were confronted with licentious hate.

**Theotokion.**

**Katavasia.**

Ranks of Angels and of mortals praise you without ceasing, Mother without bridegroom, for you carried in your arms as a babe their Creator.

**Theotokion.**

**Katavasia.**

**Second Canon.

Both now. **Theotokion.**

**Katavasia.**

Tone 8. With your mighty right hand.**

**Theotokion.**

**Katavasia.**

Let us all praise godlike John, to whom above all mortals Christ bore witness as his Forerunner and friend.

**Theotokion.**

Let us all praise godlike John, the citizen of the desert and companion of the Angels, the boast of the new people.

**Theotokion.**

At the memory of the Forerunner, let us all dance like the Angels and cry out to Christ: At his intercessions, O Christ, give peace to your world.

**Theotokion.**

At every moment, Mother of God, entreat God, who was incarnate from you by an ineffable word, to rescue your servants from every disaster.

**Theotokion.**

A Cross Moses traced out as he cut the Red Sea in a straight line with his rod for Israel as they marched on foot; and then united it again, overwhelming Pharao with his chariots, as with another line he marked out the invincible weapon. Therefore let us sing to Christ our God, for he has been glorified.

**Theotokion.**

**Ode 3. You are the foundation.**

**Theotokion.**

A dissolute girl, filled with drunken­ness, said, Give me here and now, Herod, the head of John on a dish.

**Theotokion.**

The girl danced and as she delighted lawless Herod she lured him to the murder of the Forerunner and herald.

**Theotokion.**

Wretch that you are, foolish and lawless Herod! By what insolence of a dissolute girl did you commit an unjust murder.

**Theotokion.**

Give us help by your intercessions, O All-pure, by driving off the assaults of dreadful troubles.

**Theotokion.**

**Another. Builder of heaven’s vault.**

**Theotokion.**

As mediator of the Old and Forerun­ner of the New, leader of the preach­ing of the Gospel, you reproached the lawless union of a tyrant and glori­ously met your death with joy.

**Theotokion.**

A girl that had come from a lawless womb, filled by drunkenness with Bacchic frenzy, said to Herod, Give me the head of John on a dish, to be­stow on my mother a longed for gift.

Both now. **Theotokion.**

The shameless tyrant, unable to endure the reproaches of your God-protected tongue, glorious Forerun­ner, gives your revered head to a girl as a prize for her vulgar dances.

Having dwelt bodily in a Virgin, Lord, you appeared to mortals as it was fitting for them to see you; and you revealed her as true Mother of God and help of believers, only Lover of mankind.

A Rod is accepted as a figure of the mystery; for by its budding it marks out the priest. While for the Church that once was barren the Tree of the Cross has flowered for strength and stead­fastness.

**Kathisma. Tone 1. The soldiers watching.**

Let us believers honour with a pure conscience the Forerunner of Christ, Baptist and Prophet, as glorious her­ald, teacher of repentance and as most true martyr of the Saviour; for when he had rebuked the folly of Herod his head was cut off.

Now the Baptist of the Saviour has appeared and spiritually makes joyful the minds of the faithful; he the adornment of the wilderness and the seal of the Prophets; there he was revealed as Forerunner of Christ and unerring witness of his Coming. So with spiritual songs let us cry out to John with one accord, Prophet, her­ald of the truth, intercede that we may be saved.

All the choirs of Angels were amazed, pure Virgin, at the dread mystery of your child-bearing: how the One who by his will alone upholds the universe is held as a mortal in your arms, and how the pre-eternal accepts a beginning, and the One who nourishes everything that breathes by his ineffable goodness is suckled at the breast. And as they praise you as truly God’s Mother glorify you.

**Ode 4. You, Lord, are my strength.**

Unable to bear the severity of the rebukes and the god-fearing boldness of speech, the one who was liable to the penalties of the law, disfigured by the licentiousness of the pleasures, bound and imprisoned the one who in spirit was joined before the end with the choirs on high.

Afflicted by drunkenness that harms the soul and by licentious passion, the coward, betrayed by the beat of the dancing feet, was revealed to be the murderer of a Prophet; for he conceived drunkenness, mother of intemperance, and gave birth to dread iniquity.

Truly in you the divine voice was not deceived; for you are more than the Prophets, having being deemed worthy of prophecy from the womb while your body was not fully formed and having seen and baptized in the body God the Word, who had been prophesied by you.

You are the boast of the faithful, Virgin without bridegroom, you are the protection and you are the refuge, wall and haven of Christians, for you bring supplications to your Son, All-blameless one, and you save from dangers those who with faith and love know you to be the pure Mother of God.

**Another. From a shaded mountain.**

Herod did not endure your rebukes, O servant of Christ, all-blessed John, and so he prepared unjust murder against you, for he had no reverence for your holiness.

The unjust king, maddened by Bacchic frenzy and drunkenness, made away with you, O Prophet, by an murderous sentence, for he had no reverence for your holiness.

Impious, dread Herod, led on by the words of a girl, gave your head as a gift to the adulteress, O Prophet. From it you pour out grace for us all.

Hail from our lips, holy Mother of God. Hail, who bore joy for the world. Hail, only help of mortals, pure and blessed Mother of God.

Lord, I have heard the mystery of your dispensation; I have  considered your works and glorified your Godhead.

**Ode 5. Why have you cast me.**

On her mother’s instructions the cub, more savage than the savage lioness, possessed of an evil spirit, asked as the reward for her dance the head of the Forerunner and herald, which even all the wild beasts in the deserts treated with reverence.

How beyond reach and beyond un­derstanding are your judgements, O Lover of mankind! Because a licen­tious girl danced in triumph over the one who had been revealed from the womb as a vessel of the Spirit and who had advanced in soberness and purity.

It was agreeable and natural to the one who favoured an improper union to link to his birthday drinking bouts the removal of a Prophet and to mix for the pleasure-seekers a full bowl of prophetic and holy blood.

As you gained a mother’s boldness towards your Son, All-pure Virgin, do not despise our kindred care, we beg, for we Christians put you alone forward to the Master as a kindly means of atonement.

**Another. Rising at dawn we cry.**

As payment for a dance the head of the Forerunner on a dish was given through deception to the girl. O folly!

A presumptuous adulteress was de­lighted by the gore dripping from your head, O Herald of God. O folly!

Herod compelled your tongue to be silent; but when silenced it rebuked him all the more, All-praised Fore­runner.

We sing your praise as Virgin after child-birth, Mother of God, because for the world you bore in the flesh God the Word.

Thrice-blessed Tree, on which Christ, the King and Lord, was stretched! Through it the one who de­ceived through a tree has fallen, caught by the bait of God who was nailed to you in the flesh and who grants peace to our souls.

**Ode 6. Be merciful to me, Saviour.**

Braving danger for the law of the commandments, blessed one, you disciplined the transgressor by your rebukes, for you were a reed blown about by the breaths of hostile spirits.

The head, dripping with the gore of slaughter, was brought as payment for licentious actions, even after death rebuking Herod as one who befouled nature.

Wandering in deserts, clothed in camel’s hairs, you dwell in the former as in a royal palace, wearing the latter as a kingly robe you reigned over your passions.

May we be delivered from dread failings by your intercessions, pure Mother of God, and may we obtain the divine radiance of the Son of God who was ineffably incarnate from you.

**Another. Grant me a tunic.**

For the multitude of the faithful, glo­rious John, you were a source of di­vine teachings when you announced the Lamb of God to us.

Unerring example of holiness and strict life, O Forerunner, as you stand before Christ remember those who sing your praise.

At your prayers, Prophet, Baptist and Forerunner of Christ, give peace to the world and save our souls from dangers.

You that alone through a word bore the Word in your womb deliver, we pray, our souls from the snares of the foe.

Jonas, stretching out his hands like a cross in the belly of the sea monster, clearly prefigured the saving Passion. Escaping from there on the third day, he was an image of the transcendent Resurrection of Christ God, who was nailed in the flesh and by his rising on the third day enlightened the world.

The glorious beheading of the Fore­runner became a divine dispensation, that he might proclaim to those in Hell the coming of the Saviour. So let Herodias grieve who asked for lawless murder, for she loved neither the law of God nor the age that lives, but one **artificial and temporary**.

The birthday feast of Herod appeared to all as unholy, for among the revellers the head of the faster was brought in like food. Grief was joined to joy and bitter lament was mingled with the laughter because the young woman entered among them bearing the head of the Baptist on a dish, as it says, and through mad passion grief fell on all who were then feasting with the king, for she delighted nei­ther them nor Herod, it says, and they were grieved, not with true grief but with **artificial and temporary**.

**Synaxarion**

On the 29th of the month, com­memoration of the beheading of the honoured head of the holy, glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John.

A murderous hand with sword cuts off the head**

Of him who on the Lord’s head placed his hand.

Bronze on the twenty ninth day with a blow smote the neck of the Baptist.

On the same day, commemoration of the venerable Theodora of Thessaloniki, who came from Aegina.

At the prayers of your Forerunner, O Christ, have mercy and save us. Amen.

**Ode 7. God’s condescension.**

Lawless Herod, armed with licentious lust and terrible drunkenness you as­saulted and tore down the unshakeable tower of self-mastery, the invincible city of sobriety, the Baptist of Christ.

She that had been made a disciple of the devil did not tremble, O Forerun­ner, did not draw back, did not hesi­tate as she shamelessly brought forward your precious head on a dish, for she was bolted fast to constraints of her mother.

As a lamp you shone out beforehand, as an Angel you were sent ahead, as a Prophet you proclaim as lamb of God Christ who has appeared, as a martyr your head was cut off by a sword, and you announced Christ in advance to the dead in Hell.

Delivered by your Offspring from the condemnation of the ancient fall, we ever glorify you, Virgin Mother, who were revealed as cause of freedom with your Son who gave himself as a ransom for us.

**Another. The Hebrew Youths.**

Servant heralding the Master’s Com­ing, morning star heralding the sun, John hastened to Hades crying, Blessed are you, Lord God, to the ages.

O folly of Herod! He gives to a dissolute woman as a plaything the one who with an immaterial body was equal to the Angels and who cried, Blessed are you, O God, to the ages.

Accept, O Holy of Holies, as I inter­cede for the Church, cries out the Forerunner to the Master and cries, Blessed are you, Lord God, to the ages.

You stemmed the onrush of death, pure Virgin, when you conceived and gave birth to immortal God, to whom we all sing, Blessed are you, Lord God, to the ages.

The senseless decree of a godless tyrant, redolent of threats and blasphemies hateful to God, drove peoples to confusion. But neither the fury of wild beasts nor the roaring of the fire frightened three Youths; but united in the fire that answered with a spirit bringing dew they sang, ‘O our God and the God of our Fathers, O highly exalted, blessed are you!’

**Ode 8. The Chaldean Tyrant.**

John, who outran your birth and your passion, came through a sword to the lowest parts of the earth as Prophet and Messenger of your entrance also there, crying as voice of the Word, You dead, highly exalt the Giver of life, you blind, the Giver of light, you prisoners, the Deliverer Christ.

You outran a virgin birth by your birth from a barren mother and now you have become the precursor of the voluntary crucifixion of the creator of the universe by the cutting off of your head, as you cry to those in Hades, You dead, highly exalt the Giver of life, you blind, the Giver of light, you prisoners, the Deliverer Christ.

When your head was smitten from your body, O Forerunner, your soul that ruled it was parted from your flesh; but the Godhead was not parted from the flesh of Emmanuel, not a bone was broken of the God and Master. And so we highly exalt him to the ages.

Sovereign Lady, Mother of the Lord, by your compassionate intercession wipe out the wounds and bruises of my soul and raise me who am fallen. Save me the prodigal, O All-blame­less, save me. For you are my protection and only assistance, pure and blessed to all the ages.

Once the boastful tyrant Herod transgressed and having turned his attention to the festivities of his birthday he arranges for the young woman to dance, having convinced her that he will fulfil her every re­quest. But she, compelled by her mother’s instructions, asked for the head of the Forerunner on a dish.

Having gained for himself the charge of foul murder the wretched king Herod earns himself inescapable pun­ishment, by transgressing outrageously. For he brings to the table like food the head of the Forerunner, which rebukes him together with Herodias to all the ages.

Blessed John, shining Apostle and Forerunner of the Lord, chosen of the Prophets, by your entreaties save those who celebrate with love your radiant and light-bearing memory as they cry out, O Youths bless, O Priests praise, O people highly exalt Christ to the ages.

You have become holier than the An­gels, All-holy Maiden, for you bore the One who is Holy for the Holy, who through pity became without what we mortals are to save those who cry out to him without ceasing, O Youths bless, O Priests praise, O people highly exalt Christ to the ages.

O Youths, equal in number to the Trinity, bless the Creator, Father, God; sing the praises of the Word who descended and changed the fire to dew, and highly exalt the all-holy Spirit that grants life to all, to the ages.

**Ode 9. All that hears trembled.**

Every regiment of evil trembled together with their champion the devil at your theologian’s tongue, O Prophet, which proclaims Christ, and through a dissolute girl they persuaded Herod to cut off your head. But we, the faithful, magnify you.

A valley, humble nature, has been exalted and a hill, the arrogance of death, has been humbled, for the voice of one who cries cried aloud in the deserts without light, the tents of Hades, Lift up the gates, for the mighty King will enter.

The passions of mortals tremble and demons flee in terror at the over­shadowing of the grace that was given you from God. But guard from both trials, O Forerunner of the Lord, your flock which ever magnifies you with faith.

Bend your bow, march forward and reign, O Son of God’s Mother, subduing the Ishmaelite people that wars against us, granting victories to our Orthodox Sovereign over barbarian enemies at the prayers of the one who gave you birth, O Word of God.

**Another. Heaven was amazed.**

You were a voice of one who cries, O Baptist, for you shone forth as a Prophet from a Prophet crying out in the desert to all, Repent; and you rebuked Herod who did evil, licentious deeds, And so you hurried on to Hades proclaiming the Kingdom of our God.

A shameless girl, forced by her mother Herodias, asked that the sa­cred head of the Baptist be cut off. Then Herod with speed gives orders that it be laid out like food on a dish and given as a gift, which folly it rebukes.

As Martyr and Prophet and Baptist, as voice and lamp and Messenger, witnessed to by God as greater than the Prophets, entreat the Lord to deliver from trials of every kind and from hostile harm those who cele­brate your light-bearing memory, O Forerunner.

You were seen, O Virgin Mother of God, to give birth beyond nature in a body to the good Word that the Father uttered from his own heart before all the ages as he is good. Him we know also to be beyond bodies, even though he has been clothed in a body.

**Katavasias.**

Mystic Paradise are you, O Mother of God, untilled you brought forth Christ, who planted on the earth the life-giving Tree of the Cross. And so as it is raised today, we worship it and magnify you.

The death that came to the race through eating of the tree has, through the Cross, today been made of no effect. For the curse on all mankind of our mother Eve has been abolished by the shoot of the pure Mother of God, whom all the Powers of heaven mag­nify.

Let us garland with hymns of praise the one known to be greatest among Prophets and who became precursor of Apostles, the Forerunner of grace, for his head was cut off for the sake of the law of the Lord.

**Another. The heaven with stars.**

Dissolute Herod treacherously cut off your head, planter of purity, Baptist of the Saviour, but was quite unable to cut out the rebukes of your tongue.

Holy Maiden, who abolished by your divine childbearing the curse of the world, deliver by your prayers from dangers of every kind the flock that faithfully entreats you.

**At Lauds we insert 4 Stichera and we sing three Prosomia,

doubling the first.

Tone 8. O marvellous wonder!**

O marvellous wonder! A dissolute, licentious girl carries round the sacred head revered by Angels. She offers to her adulterous mother the tongue that rebuked the lawless. O your ineffable forbearance, lover of mankind! Through it, O Christ, save our souls, for you alone are compas­sionate.

O the blindness of Herod! Having dishonoured God by neglect of the law he treacherously promises to keep his oaths. And he adds murder to adultery, pretending to be sad. O your ineffable compassion, lover of mankind! Through it, O Christ, save our souls, for you alone are compas­sionate.

O amazement beyond understanding! The seal of the Prophets, the earthly Angel is displayed as the reward of a harlot’s dance. The tongue that spoke of God is sent on before and is the herald of Christ to those in Hades. O your forethought beyond speech, lover of mankind! Through it, O Christ, save our souls, for you alone are compassionate.

Once again Herodias rages, once again she is deranged. O deceitful dance and revelry with deceit! The Baptist was beheaded and Herod was troubled. At the prayers of your Forerunner, Lord, grant peace to our souls.

Mother of God, you are the true vine, who gave bud to the fruit of life; we implore you, Sovereign Lady, intercede together with the Apostles and all the Saints that he have mercy on our souls.

**Great Doxology.**