Zacharias, father of John the Baptist
"I will never again pray for others. I have become unworthy since I doubted God."[2]The Maternity of his Wife progressing, they received a visit at their property in Hebron from the Virgin Mary, Elizabeth’s cousin. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, not only his Wife but also he perceived the Presence of the Messiah in Mary’s womb:
"I worship in you the God of Jacob. You, my first Temple, where the first priest who has become aware can now pray to the Eternal One."[3]Under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, he recites the The "Hail Mary" (Ave Maria), thus completing the prayer of his Wife.[4]-[5]
It is he who, with a very human view of the "power" of the Redeemer, urges the holy Family to reside in Bethlehem: "You must stay here. The Messiah must grow up in Bethlehem. It is the City of David. The Most High has brought Him by way of Caesar’s will to be born in the land of David, the holy land of Judea. Why bring Him to Nazareth? You know how the Jews judge the Nazarenes. Tomorrow, this Child will have to be the Savior of His people. The capital must not despise its King because He comes from a region it despises."[6]
Zacharie and his Wife Elizabeth will be buried on their property in Hebron. This tombWater will be razed after the arrest of the Baptist and the confiscation of their property.[7]
Apostolic path
He had said: "I, priest of God, say that it is in Bethlehem that the Savior must live" and God showed him how a judgment, even that of a priest, if not enlightened by God, is a poor judgment. Thinking with horror: "I could have killed Jesus, with my words," Zacharie became the righteous one who now rests awaiting Paradise. [...] Even on the day of my coming of age, it was not possible to see Zacharie come for the same ceremony and leave the day before with his son.[8]
His name
Zacharie, Zekarya in Hebrew, means "God has remembered" - Historical reference: the contemporary prophet Haggai who, like him, urged the reconstruction of the Temple.
Where is he mentioned in the work?
EMV 6 EMV 8 EMV 9 EMV 11 EMV 12 EMV 13 EMV 14 EMV 18 EMV 21 EMV 22 EMV 22 EMV 22 EMV 23 EMV 24 EMV 25 EMV 30 EMV 30 EMV 31 EMV 31 EMV 43 EMV 75 EMV 77 EMV 89
EMV 136
EMV 281
EMV 574
Learn more about this character
What became of Zacharie? The Protevangelium of James, an apocryphal writing, reports Zacharie dying assassinated following the massacre of the Innocents; a thesis taken up by Anne-Catherine Emmerich in her visions. This could be a plausible scenario: Zacharie, priest of the Temple, mentions within his circle the birth of Jesus and proclaims Him as the expected Messiah following the miracle surrounding the Circumcision of the Baptist. It would be logical that in this scenario, Zacharie was assassinated by the fury of Herod.
This is not the thesis reported by Maria Valtorta, since the shepherds of Bethlehem find refuge and assistance with him after the massacre.[9] Their property in Hebron is moreover not confiscated as would have been the case if Herod, the paranoid king, had made the connection between the prophecy of the King of Israel and Jesus born in Bethlehem. The Gospels show anyway that Herod did not know who He was since he ordered the slaughter indiscriminately of males under two years old.
On the other hand, it is not impossible that, as a precaution and for a time, Elizabeth hid her son in the desert as reported by visionary Maria d'Agréda and, implicitly, by Consuelo. One can indeed imagine the anxiety caused by the rumor of the massacre carried out only a few kilometers away.
According to Marie d'Agréda, Zacharie died about three months after the flight into Egypt of the Holy Family. Elizabeth, a refugee in the desert with John the Baptist, died there when John the Baptist was four years old. For Maria Valtorta, Zacharie was still alive at the time of John the Baptist’s majority, that is to say at the age of twelve.[10]