Holy Prophet Zechariah and Righteous Elizabeth, parents of St John the Baptist

Zechariah and Elizabeth are known from the Gospel of Luke. Zechariah was a priest of the course of Abijah, serving in Jerusalem in the time of King Herod, and Elizabeth was also of the line of Aaron. Childless and elderly, they were told, according to Luke, by an angel who appeared to Zechariah in the temple that they would have a son, John. Zechariah doubted and was struck dumb until the child was born; he then named him John and spoke the prayer called the Benedictus.

Tradition adds that Herod, after the massacre of the children of Bethlehem, sought John and had Zechariah killed between the temple and the altar when he would not reveal where the boy was. The tradition also holds that Elizabeth hid with John in the hills and died forty days later.