The liturgy celebrates in the birth of St. John the Baptist the dawn of salvation, the appearance in this world of the forerunner of the Messias: “Elizabeth, Zachary’s wife, has brought into the world a great man, John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Savior” (First Antiphon, at Second Vespers). Six months before our Savior’s birth, the birth of John the Baptist shared in the grandeur of the mystery of the Incarnation which it heralded. In the Middle Ages it was celebrated as the Summer Christmas, with three Masses just as there are three on Christmas day. The Church has emphasized the connection between the two feasts, particularly in the Secret prayer, the Postcommunion and the “Puer natus est” at the Magnificat of Second Vespers.