An elderly priest and his wife quietly served the Lord. Zechariah, , ministered in the temple; Elizabeth, was righteous before God, “walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” Yet they had no child, and their prayers for one had long since faded into habit. As the people prayed outside, the angel Gabriel appeared bbeside the altar and announced the impossible: “Thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.”