11 September Saturday
Old Style — 29 AugustToday
The Beheading of the Honourable and Glorious Prophet and Baptist John
The Beheading of St John the Baptist›
This year's detailed calendar has not been published yet — these are calculated dates.
Commemorated — from the synaxarion
Tap a name to open the life
- The Beheading of the Honourable and Glorious Prophet and Baptist John›
- Holy Martyr Anastasius (+1794)›
The tone and the day's psalms
What is a tone?
A tone is not a psalm number. It is the mode in which that week's resurrection hymns are sung — the whole week's Vespers, Matins and Liturgy are set in one tone.
There are eight tones, and they change each week. The cycle opens with the first tone on Thomas Sunday after Pascha and returns to the first every eight weeks; Bright Week itself has no tone of its own. A new tone begins on Saturday evening, with the new church week.
The Psalter is divided into twenty kathismata and, by the usual rule, is read through once a week. Appointed for this day:
- At Matins · kathisma 16Psalms 109–117›
- At Matins · kathisma 17Psalms 118›
- At Vespers · kathisma 1Psalms 1–8›
This is the usual rule. In Great Lent the Psalter is read twice a week, and the kathismata are divided differently.
Word of the day
If you do not want to suffer evil, do not wish to do it either. The first unfailingly follows the second. “For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7).
Icons of the day's saints — from our shop
All icons →For every day — candles and incense
Candles and incense →Icon: The Beheading of St John the Baptist · Public domain






