The Vigil of the Nativity of St John the Baptist

Truly it is worthy and just, right and profitable to salvation, that we should give Thee thanks always and everywhere, o Lord, holy Father, almighty and everlasting God, holding the solemn fast, by which we anticipate the birth of blessed John the Baptist. Whose father, when he doubted the message of God’s word that he was to be born, was deprived of the use of his voice, and received it back when he was born; who grew silent when he did not believe the Angel’s promise, but at the birth of the glorious herald, gained his speech and became a prophet. And likewise his mother, being sterile and worn by old age, did not only become fruitful in childbearing, but was also filled with the Holy Spirit, so that she might receive the fruit of the Blessed Mary with a blessing with eager voice. And himself that was begotten, as the one who shows the way to heaven, urged that the way of the Lord be prepared, and being lately conceived and brought forth in the last age of his parents, proclaimed that the Redeemer of the human race would be born in the last times. (An ancient preface for the vigil of the Nativity of St John the Baptist, first attested in the oldest surviving collection of Roman liturgical texts, the so-called Leonine Sacramentary.)

The Annunciation to Zachariah, 1300-10, by the Italian painter Deodato Orlandi, 1265-1330 ca. (All images from Wikimedia Commons by Sailko, public domain or CC BY 3.0) 

VD: exhibentes sollemne jejunium, quo beati Johannis baptistae natalicia praevenimus. Cujus genitor et verbi Dei nuntium dubitans nasciturum vocis est privatus officio, et eodem recepit nascente sermonem; quique Angelo promittente dum non credit obmutuit, magnifici praeconis exortu et loquens factus est et profeta: materque pariter sterilis aevoque confecta non solum puerperio fecunda processit, sed etiam, quo beatae Mariae fructum sedula voce benedictione susciperet, spiritu divinitatis impleta est; ipseque progenitus, utpote viae caelestis adsertor, viam domino monuit praeparari, seraque in suprema parentum aetate concretus et editus, procreandum novissimis temporibus humani generis disseruit redemptorem.

The panel shown above is one of six images of the life of St John the Baptist, by a painter called Deodato Orlandi, who was active in the area of Pisa and Lucca, between 1284 and his death in roughly 1330; almost nothing is known of his life. The panels are now in the Gemäldegallerie in Berlin. As is the case with most Italian painters of his era and region, his work is heavily influenced by the style of Byzantine icons; this is especially noticeable in the gold striations in the robes, and the gold backgrounds. It will be his contemporary Giotto (1267-1337) whose style will create a strong impetus to move away from this to a more naturalistic style, in which the sense of space is created by, e.g., variations in the shades of color within the robes, and the use of blue backgrounds to represent the sky.

The Visitation

The Birth of the Baptist

The imposition of the name John.

John preaching to the crowds in the desert.

The Last Judgment; the classic medieval arrangement of this motif puts the Virgin Mary to Christ’s right (our left) as the greatest of all the Saints, and John the Baptist on the opposite side, as the second greatest, him of whom the Lord said, “Greater man hath not been born of woman.”