Today is a strict fast day.
The Beheading of the Forerunner and Baptist John.
Following the Baptism of the Lord, Saint John the Baptist was locked up in prison by Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch (ruler of one fourth of the Holy Land) and governor of Galilee. (After the death of king Herod the Great, the Romans divided the territory of Palestine into four parts, and put a governor in charge of each part. Herod Antipas received Galilee from the emperor Augustus).
The prophet of God John openly denounced Herod for having left his lawful wife, the daughter of the Arabian king Aretas,…completed at: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2021/08/29/102419-the-beheading-of-the-holy-glorious-prophet-forerunner-and-baptis
