The Holy Prophet Baruch

Commemorated on September 28

      The Holy Prophet Baruch was an inseparable companion, disciple, friend and scribe of the great Prophet Jeremiah (Comm. 1 May). He wrote down an entire scroll of his prophetic sayings and read them to the people in the Jerusalem Temple. Together with his teacher, Saint Baruch grievously bewailed the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnessar, and he taught and censured the Jews, and he suffered from them spite and vexation. He was a witness of how they killed the holy Prophet Jeremiah with stones, and gave over his body to burial.
      After the martyr's death of the Prophet Jeremiah, Saint Baruch lived a short while and died in Egypt, in the VI Century before the Birth of Christ. The holy Prophet Baruch prophesied about the return of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity and about the desolation of Babylon. He clearly prophesied about the coming into the world of the Son of God, Who would "dwell with mankind". His prophecy begins with the words: "This is our God, and naught else doth compare with Him" (Bar. 3: 36-38, 4: 1-5).
      The Book of the Prophet Baruch is regarded as uncanonical and is annexed to the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah. On the eve of the Nativity of Christ from it are read paroemi (Old Testament readings), expressed as prophecy from Jeremiah.