It's another feast of St John the Baptist today. The Martyrdom/Passion or Decollation. I actually prefer it to the June one and loved this splendid Caravaggio depiction of it when I fist saw it in Valletta Cathedral (it's the only painting the geat artist signed).There is a splendid old account of this feast and its rational which was 1st printed in English by William Caxton http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/goldenLegend/decollationjohnBaptist.pdf. The collect says it all:
Almighty God,
who called your servant John the Baptist
to be the forerunner of your Son in birth and death:
strengthen us by your grace
that, as he suffered for the truth,
so we may boldly resist corruption and vice
and receive with him the unfading crown of glory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
who called your servant John the Baptist
to be the forerunner of your Son in birth and death:
strengthen us by your grace
that, as he suffered for the truth,
so we may boldly resist corruption and vice
and receive with him the unfading crown of glory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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