gospel · -6 · Ein Karem
Elizabeth, barren and past the age, bore a son, and on the eighth day the neighbours went to name him for his father. She said no — his name is John — and Zechariah, mute since Gabriel had told him so, wrote the same on a tablet and his tongue was loosed. What he then said is the Benedictus, which the West has sung at lauds every morning since. The church keeps the day on 24 June, six months before the Nativity of the Lord, which is the interval Luke gives.
The Forerunner is born and named; Zechariah prophesies the Benedictus.