ZACHARY, Saint. - Father of St. John the Baptist, mentioned in Lk. 1:5-25, 57-80.
He was an Israelite priest (not the high priest, as the Protoevangelium of James (v.) and many ancient authors, including St. Epiphanius, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine and St. Bede, maintain), of the class of Abijah (v.), the husband of St. Elizabeth (v.), who was barren.
One day, in the time of Herod the Great, while Z. was offering incense on the altar of incense in the Temple of Jerusalem, the angel Gabriel (v.) appeared to him and promised him the birth of a son, whom he was to call John and who would be the precursor of the Messiah. Z., distrustful, asked for a sign and obtained one that was also a punishment, remaining mute (and perhaps also deaf) until the angelic promise was fulfilled (Lk. 1:5-25). Z. received into his house (probably at Ain Karim (v.)) the Virgin Mary, who assisted Elizabeth during the last three months of her pregnancy. On the occasion of the circumcision of the promised son, when asked what name was to be given him, Z. wrote on a tablet: "John is his name," and, having recovered his speech, gave thanks to God with the Benedictus (v.): Lk. 1:40, 57-80. Feast on Nov. 5. - See rav. CLVIII.
Bibliography
Pietro de Ambroggi
APOCALYPSE OF ZACHARY
An apocryphon mentioned in the De LX libris et quinam extra illos sunt (PG 1, 516) between the Apocalypse of Zephaniah and that of Ezra. The Stichometry of Nicephorus (11th century) likewise lists among the apocrypha of the Old Testament a book of "Z., father of John," of 500 stichoi. It would therefore be a question of the father of the Precursor.
There are in fact various remnants of a legend about Z., the father of the Baptist; the traditions concerning the death of Z. amplify Jesus' saying (Mt. 23:35; Lk. 11:51) about Z. "slain between the sanctuary and the altar." Thus the unexpected (not original) ending of the Protoevangelium of James (chaps. 22-24) relates how Z. was killed by Herod and his blood (not his body) found in the temple. A. Berendts maintains that the A. of Z. was written in the 3rd or 4th century and comprised, besides this ending, the Account of the birth of J. B. and of the killing of his father Z., which he discovered in the Russian Cetji Minei, under Sept. 5. But since a narrative writing cannot be entitled an Apocalypse, Bardenhewer admits that there also existed an apocryphon about Z. as a prophet of the Old Testament; of this, however, there is no trace whatsoever.
Bibliography3 works
Antonino Romeo