When John the Baptist was beheaded, Herodias ordered his head to be buried separately from the body, fearing that the prophet would rise from the dead. And she took the holy head and buried it in some dishonorable place. But her maidservant Joanna dug it up and buried it on the Mount of Olives. A nobleman believed in Christ and became a monk, receiving the name Innocent. While building a cell for himself, he found a head that appeared to him to be that of the Baptist. He returned it to the same place. Later, by God's providence, the head of Saint John the Baptist was forgotten and published, until during the time of Empress Theodora and Patriarch Ignatius it was transferred to Constantinople. While he was alive, “John did no sign” (John 10:41), but God gave his relics abundant miraculous power.

Venerable Erasmus of the Caves. Easter Lent.