Feast day: November 5

Sts. Zechariah & Elizabeth

— · 1st century BC

Patron of Married couples, the childless

The elderly priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, cousin of Mary, who in their old age became the parents of John the Baptist after an angel's promise and Zechariah's spell of silence.

Zechariah and Elizabeth are the parents of St. John the Baptist, and their story opens the Gospel of Luke. Zechariah was a priest of the Temple in Jerusalem, and Elizabeth, a kinswoman of the Virgin Mary, was descended from the priestly line of Aaron. The Gospel describes them both as 'righteous before God,' faithfully keeping all the commandments.

Their one sorrow was that they had no child, and they had grown old. Then, as Zechariah served his turn offering incense in the Temple, the angel Gabriel appeared to him and announced that Elizabeth would bear a son who would go before the Lord 'in the spirit and power of Elijah.' Zechariah, doubting because of their age, was struck dumb until the promise should be fulfilled.

Elizabeth conceived, and when Mary — herself newly told that she would bear the Messiah — came to visit her, the unborn John 'leapt for joy' in his mother's womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, greeted Mary as 'the mother of my Lord' — words the Church still prays in the Hail Mary. At the child's birth and naming, Zechariah's speech returned, and he broke into the great canticle of praise, the 'Benedictus,' sung by the Church every morning.

Honoured together as a holy and faithful couple whose patient hope was at last rewarded, Zechariah and Elizabeth are patrons of married couples and of those who long, against hope, for a child.

Told he would have a son in old age, Zechariah doubted and was struck mute — and sang for joy only when, at the baby's naming, he wrote 'His name is John.'

Image: Jusepe de Ribera (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/08486b.htm