St John the Baptist
St John the Baptist, (fl. 1st century AD). Jewish prophet. He spent some years in a monastic community in the desert before becoming known as a prophet, preaching the imminence of the Final Judgment. According to the New Testament he was a relative of Jesus Christ. His baptism of Christ marked the beginning of Jesus’s ministry. Soon afterwards, John was arrested by Herod Antipas and beheaded at the request of Salome, Herod’s stepdaughter. The early Christian Church took up his rite of baptism as a sacrament.
