Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. In that of the Canons Regular, Zacharias alone on Nov. 5. Zacharias alone in the Mart, of Usuardus on Nov. 5. By the Greeks Zacharias on Feb. 11 and May 16. Elizabeth is not commemorated by them. Authority: — The narrative in the Gospel of S. Luke.] ACH ARIAS was a priest of the course of Abia or Abijah; and he was offering incense in the temple when the angel of the Lord appeared to him and announced that he should have a son who was to be named John. When Zacharias asked a sign, the angel announced that he was Gabriel, and that as a sign Zacharias should lose his speech. His wife Elizabeth was of the daughters of Aaron. Both were aged, and could not expect a child in the order of nature. In course ot time Elizabeth was aware that she was about to become a mother. and for greater privacy retired into the hill-countiy, whither she was soon afterwards followed by her kinswoman, Mary. Three months after this, and while Mary still remained with her, Elizabeth was delivered of a son. The birth of John preceded by six months that of our Lord. On the eighth day the child of promise was, in conformity with the law of Moses, brought to the priest for circumcision, and as the performance of this rite was the accustomed time for naming a child, the friends of the family proposed to call him Zacharias after the name of his father. The mother, however, required to have him called John; a decision which Zacharias, still speechless, confirmed by writing on a tablet “ His name is John.” The judgment on his want of faith was then at once removed.

The Protevangelium relates that when Herod sent to slay the young children at Bethlehem, Elizabeth fled with John into the hill-country, “ and looked for somewhere to hide him, and there was no place of concealment. And Elizabeth groaned in spirit, and said * Mount of God, receive a mother with her child/ And suddenly the mountain divided and received her. And light shone through to them, for the angel of the Lord was with them, preserving them.” The servants of Herod questioned Zacharias, and when he would not tell them, they slew him between the porch and the altar. “ And about daybreak Zacharias was slain; and the children of Israel knew not that it was so. But at the hour of greeting the priests went, and the blessing of Zacharias did not meet them according to custom. And when he tarried they were all afraid; but one of them ventured and went in, and perceived congealed blood near the altar, and a voice was heard saying, ‘Zacharias is murdered, and his blood shall not be wiped out till his avenger cometh.* And he went out and told the priests, and then they ventured in and saw what had occurred. SS. Galactio and Episteme.

And the wainscotings of the temple shrieked out, and were cleft from top to bottom. But they found not his body, only his blood congealed to stone.”

The “ Bordeaux Itinerary of the Holy Land,” written in 333, mentions the blood of Zacharias between the porch and the altar, as fresh as if shed only yesterday. The petrified blood was an object of curiosity shown to early pilgrims, and mentioned repeatedly in the Mediaeval Itineraries. The head of Zacharias is shown in the Lateran [St. John Lateran, the pope’s cathedral in Rome] basilica.