Saint Elizabeth. Elizabeth, also spelled Elisabeth derives from Elisheba:, was the mother of John the Baptist and the wife of Zechariah, according to the Gospel of Luke. According to the Gospel of Luke, Elizabeth was of the daughters of Aaron. She and her husband Zachariah were righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, but childless. While he was in the temple of the Lord, Zacharias was visited by the angel Gabriel: But the angel said to him: Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born; Luke 1:13-15 Zacharias doubted whereby he could know this since both he and his wife were old. The angel identified himself as Gabriel and told Zacharias that he would be dumb, and not able to speak until the words were fulfilled, because he did not believe. When the days of his ministry were complete, he returned to his house. After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. The Lord has done this for me, she said. In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.,   Luke 1:24-25 According to the account, the angel Gabriel was then sent to Nazareth in Galilee to her relative Mary, a virgin, espoused to a man called Joseph, and informed her that she would conceive by the Holy Ghost and bring forth a son to be called Jesus. After she was also informed that her relative Elizabeth had begun her sixth month of pregnancy, she traveled to Hebron, in the hill country of Judah, to visit Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!; Luke 1:41-45 Matthew Henry comments, Mary knew that Elizabeth was with child, but it does not appear that Elizabeth had been told any thing of her relative Mary's being designed for the mother of the Messiah; and therefore what knowledge she appears to have had of it must have come by a revelation, which would be a great encouragement to Mary. After Mary heard Elizabeth's blessing, she spoke the words now known as the Magnificat. Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, No! He is to be called John. They said to her, There is no one among your relatives who has that name. Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, His name is John. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God; Luke 1:56-64 That is the last mention of Elizabeth, who is not mentioned in any other chapter in the Bible. The chapter continues with the prophecy of Zacharias, and ends with the note that John grew, and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts until his ministry to Israel began; so it is unknown how long Elizabeth and her husband lived after that. A traditional tomb of Elizabeth is shown in the Franciscan Monastery of Saint John in the Wilderness near Jerusalem. Elizabeth is mentioned in several books of the Apocrypha, most prominently in the Protevangelion of James, in which the birth of her son and the subsequent murder of her husband are chronicled. Elizabeth is revered as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church on September 23 and in the Orthodox and Anglican traditions on September 5, on the same day with her husband Zacharias/ Zechariah. She is commemorated as a matriarch in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and Zacharias is commemorated as a prophet.