Righteous Elizabeth, wife of the Prophet Zacharias and mother of St. John the Baptist.
The righteous Elizabeth was of the daughters of Aaron and the wife of the priest Zacharias; the Gospel of Luke calls them both righteous before God. Barren and advanced in years, she conceived St. John the Forerunner by the promise of the Archangel Gabriel, and when the Virgin Mary came to visit her she was filled with the Holy Spirit and greeted her as the Mother of her Lord.
Tradition relates that during the slaughter of the innocents she fled with her infant son into the wilderness, where a rock opened to shelter them, and that she reposed there in peace. She is commemorated with her husband on September 5, a major name day in Greece.
Feast day
On the New Calendar, Elizabeth the Righteous, Mother of the Forerunner is commemorated on September 5. Churches on the Old (Julian) Calendar keep the feast on September 18 of the civil calendar.
Who celebrates a name day
People with these names keep their name day on this feast:
Elisavet, Elisabet, Elisabeth, Elizabeth, Eliza, Elisa, Liza, Lisa, Elsa, Beth, Betty, Elsie, Elissavet
Also commemorated on September 5
Zacharias the Prophet
Prophet, Ζαχαρίας
Prophet Zacharias and Elizabeth, parents of John the Baptist.
Name days: Zacharias, Zach, Zachary, Zacharoula
Medimnos, Urban, Theodore and the 77 with them
Martyr, Μέδιμνος, Ουρβανός, Θεόδωρος
Holy Martyrs Medimnos, Urban, Theodore and eighty clergy of Constantinople burned at sea under the Arian emperor Valens.
Athanasius of Brest
Hierarch, Αθανάσιος του Μπρεστ
Hieromartyr Athanasius, abbot of Brest, martyred for Orthodoxy in 1648.
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