Do the Orthodox pray to John the Baptist? If not, why not? Do they have any special reasons for not praying to him?
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Do you have a quote or reference that prompted this question?– curiousdannii ♦May 20, 2015 at 12:22
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@curiousdannii - I don't have any quotes or references. I just saw them pray to many different saints, yet have never seen them pray to John the Baptist. This was all that prompted my question.– brilliantMay 20, 2015 at 13:51
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His intercessions, along with those of a few other (groups of) saints (and angels) are invoked at the end of every Sunday morning and evening service, and his akhatist is found in any generic akhatist book and horologion.– user46876Nov 12, 2021 at 3:00
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@Lucian: As far as I understand akhatist is merely a form of a hymn and horologion is a set of events taking place in a service. My question, though, is more specific and more simple: is there a real prayer to John the Baptist in there? Is there such words like, "John, please, do <this and that> for us"?– brilliantNov 12, 2021 at 14:31
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@brilliant: Akathist hymn to Saint John the Baptist. The horologion is a rather thick prayer book, containing all prayers throughout the day (morning, evening, midday, midnight, etc.)– user46876Nov 12, 2021 at 14:38
3 Answers
Yes
John the Baptist or John the Forerunner is a revered Saint: he is considered the last of the Old Testament saints that went before Christ. There are numerous examples of iconography Saint John the Baptist icon and even Orthodox churches with John as their patron saint e.g. St John the Baptist Church, a parish of the Russian Orthodox Church in Canberra, Australia, as well as six separate feast days. More information here: Orthodox Wiki: John the Forerunner
According to Orthodox teachings, any saint can be called upon to pray to God for you, including Saint John the Baptist.
In fact, in the orthodox evening prayers, there is a short prayer dedicated to him:
O Saint John, Forerunner of the Messiah, pray to God for me, the sinner.
(rough translation)
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@thedarkwanderer All answers should ideally be supported with quotes or references from authoritative sources. I have no reason to suspect Florian is making this up, but it shouldn't be hard to find a source either.– curiousdannii ♦May 21, 2015 at 5:53
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@thedarkwanderer The answer says "in the orthodox evening prayers". What, is there only a single Orthodox liturgy? All the autocephalous Orthodox Churches somehow conform to one single evening prayer liturgy? That's what needs sourcing. Where exactly does that prayer come from? Google currently has no results for the exact prayer Florian quotes here - unsurprising if it's his own translation. It's entirely appropriate to ask for more details.– curiousdannii ♦May 21, 2015 at 6:52
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1I did provide a source: the evening prayers. In every orthodox prayer book you can find the morning and evening prayers. I was reffering to the individual evening prayers, not to the evening liturgy.– FlorianMay 23, 2015 at 9:49
Yes
This should be obvious, given St. John's prominence in the Bible and the life of Jesus, and indeed a simple google search turns up many, many Orthodox Prayer formulas from a variety of Traditions.