Elizabeth

The Holy Righteous Elizabeth was the wife of the priest Zechariah, the mother of Saint John the Baptist and a relative of the Most Holy Virgin Mary. Almost everything certain about her is found in the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke. The Church commemorates her together with Zechariah on 5 September, new style (Churches keeping the old calendar observe it on 18 September).

Her family

Luke writes that Elizabeth was "of the daughters of Aaron", that is, of priestly descent, and that Zechariah served as a priest in the Temple at Jerusalem. Both were "righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord". They had no children, because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years. In that age barrenness was counted a heavy burden, and Elizabeth bore it with patience.

The Gospel calls Elizabeth a "relative" of Mary. The tradition of the Church, kept in the synaxaria, says that she was a sister of Saint Anna, the mother of the Theotokos, which would make her an aunt of the Virgin. According to tradition the family lived in Ein Kerem, a village four or five kilometres west of Jerusalem.

The announcement and the conception

While Zechariah was serving in the Temple, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to him and announced that Elizabeth would bear a son, to be named John. Zechariah doubted, since both were old, and remained mute until the words were fulfilled. After a short time Elizabeth conceived and hid herself for five months. She said that the Lord had looked on her to take away her reproach among people.

In the sixth month the same Archangel Gabriel was sent to Nazareth, to the Virgin Mary, and told her that Elizabeth, her relative, was already in her sixth month.

The meeting with Mary

Mary arose and went in haste to the hill country of Judah, to the house of Zechariah. When Elizabeth heard her greeting, the child leaped in her womb and she was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she cried out: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Before anyone had told her, she confessed in Mary the Mother of the Lord.

These words have entered the prayer of the Church and are heard in every service in which the Theotokos is honoured. Mary answered with the song of praise called the Magnificat and stayed with Elizabeth about three months, then returned home.

The birth of John

When the time came, Elizabeth bore a son. Neighbours and relatives rejoiced with her at the mercy the Lord had shown. On the eighth day, at the circumcision, they wanted to name him Zechariah after his father, but Elizabeth said: "No; he shall be called John." No one in their family bore that name. They asked Zechariah by signs, and he asked for a writing tablet and wrote: "His name is John." At once his mouth was opened and he began to praise God, and later he spoke the prophecy called the Benedictus.

This is the last time Scripture shows us Elizabeth. Luke says only that the child grew and became strong in spirit and lived in the wilderness until the day of his appearing to Israel.

The flight into the mountains and her repose

The synaxaria and the Tradition of the Church add what happened when King Herod ordered the killing of the infants of Bethlehem. Herod knew of the unusual events at John's birth and feared that he was the foretold King of the Jews. Elizabeth hid herself with the child in the hills. When she saw her pursuers coming, she prayed to God, and the mountain opened and concealed them. The Protoevangelium of James keeps the same story, with the words "Mountain of God, receive me, a mother, with my child", and says that an angel of the Lord was with them.

Zechariah was serving in the Temple in those days. Soldiers sent by Herod tried in vain to learn from him where his son was, and by the king's command, according to tradition, they killed him between the temple and the altar (Matthew 23:35). Elizabeth fell asleep in the Lord forty days after her husband, and John grew up under God's protection in the wilderness. Traditions point to different places for their tombs: one account names Sebastia, about fifteen kilometres north-⁠west of Nablus.

Veneration

The hymns of the Church give Elizabeth a beautiful image: like the full moon that receives the light of the sun, she received the light of truth from the Messiah, the spiritual Sun, and walked in all the commandments of the Lord together with Zechariah. The two are commemorated on the same day, 5 September, and in the Greek calendar also at the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, on 24 June.

At Ein Kerem near Jerusalem the places linked with them are shown to this day: the church of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, built by tradition over the cave in which he was born, and the church of the Visitation, on the site of the house of Zechariah and Elizabeth. Elizabeth is also honoured as a saint by the Roman Catholic, Oriental Orthodox and Lutheran Churches.