On today’s holy day of the Beheading of St. John the Forerunner, we remember all Orthodox servicemen who perished on the battlefields for faith, Tsar, and our country. After an early-hour Divine Liturgy, panikhida was served at the Trinity Cathedral of the Diveyevo monastery.

Today’s remembrance of Orthodox servicemen was established during the rule of Empress Catherine II by a decree from August 17, 1769 at the time when Russia was fighting in a war with Turkey and Poland. It was common to serve Eucharist for the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed at Peter and Paul’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian empire.

The rite of the commemoration of the dead says: “This day of remembrance of the Forerunner of the Lord and his sufferings for truth is right for raising a universal prayer to God about those who suffered likewise and laid down their lives for faith and their country.” St. John the Baptist had suffered for true faith like a heroic warrior of the Heavenly Kingdom, so the Church entrusts him to intercede for the Orthodox warriors who laid down their lives for their homeland here on earth.