Nedd…we still remember you!

St. John the Baptist, Patron of road workers, health spas, wool & leather workers, Jordan; Invoked to protect lambs

Most saints are commemorated on the anniversaries of their death—their “Heavenly Birthdays.” But on June 24—Midsummer Day—we celebrate the earthly birth of John the Baptist. After this date the days grow shorter, and the end of the Christian year approaches, until in early winter we celebrate the birth of Christ, and a new Beginning. John is a figure of great importance in the New Testament. All four Evangelists are at pains to praise this contemporary of Christ (according to Luke, he was Our Lord’s cousin). Perhaps this Holy Man of the Desert—preacher, prophet, baptizer—was briefly Christ’s rival for the title of Messiah; at any rate, the authors of the Gospels describe John as humbly deferring to their Hero. John, like many an Old Testament prophet before him, had harsh words for the morals of reigning Jewish royalty. King Herod had him arrested, imprisoned, and so the story goes, decapitated—his severed head being awarded to a striptease dancer named Salome. As Patron of Midsummer, John absorbed all the pagan magic associated with that day (and the eve of that day). The bonfires lit to honor the old gods became “the fires of Saint John.” The miraculous curative herb Hypericum traditionally gathered at that time became Saint-John’s-Wort—”High John the Conkeroo” to voodoo practitioners. Because he vowed to “make straight the way,” he is the Patron of highways and road workers; because he called Christ “the Lamb of God,” and is invariable pictured with a lamb, he looks after all those engaged in the wool-working trades. He was always clad in camel’s hide, endearing him to leather workers, and having immersed sinners in the waters of Jordan, he is the Patron of all health spas and of that Middle Eastern nation.