St. Elizabeth

St. Elizabeth was the mother of St. John the Baptist and the wife of the priest Zechariah, and she is honored in the Gospel of Luke as a righteous and devout woman who walked blamelessly in all the commandments of the Lord. A kinswoman of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she was barren and advanced in years when the angel Gabriel promised her husband that she would bear a son who would prepare the way of the Lord.

When the Virgin Mary, newly become the Mother of God, came to visit her, the child leapt in Elizabeth's womb, and she, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out the words the Church has treasured ever since: "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb," and "Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" In this meeting of the Visitation she becomes the first to proclaim Mary's blessedness. Together with Zechariah, she is commemorated on 5 November.