St. Zechariah the Prophet
Feast Day: September 6
Imagine coming home after seventy years away.
Your city is in ruins.
The Temple your grandparents talked about is a pile of rubble.
Everyone is tired, poor, and discouraged.
That is when God sent a prophet whose very name was a promise.
St. Zechariah, pray for us.
“God Remembers”
The name Zechariah means “the Lord remembers.”
For a people who felt forgotten, that name was already a sermon.
Zechariah was a priest’s son, from a priestly family that had returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon (2 Esdras 12:16).
He is one of the twelve minor prophets, and his book is the eleventh of them.
He opens it simply:
“In the eighth month, in the second year of king Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zacharias the son of Barachias, the son of Addo, the prophet”
— Zacharias 1:1, Douay-Rheims
That was about 520 B.C.
A Partner for Haggai
God did not send Zechariah alone.
At the same time, He sent the prophet Haggai.
Together, the two of them urged the people to finish rebuilding the Temple.
The Book of Esdras tells us their preaching worked:
“And the ancients of the Jews built and prospered according to the prophecy of Aggeus the prophet, and of Zacharias the son of Addo” (1 Esdras 6:14).
Haggai was the practical one: stop building your own houses and build God’s house.
Zechariah was the visionary: lift up your eyes and see what God is going to do.
“Turn Ye to Me”
Zechariah’s first message was a call to conversion.
“Turn ye to me, saith the Lord of hosts: and I will turn to you, saith the Lord of hosts.”
— Zacharias 1:3, Douay-Rheims
God was not finished with His people.
He was waiting for them to come back.
Visions in the Night
Zechariah received a series of strange and beautiful visions.
A man on a red horse among the myrtle trees.
A golden lampstand fed by two olive trees.
A flying scroll.
Each one carried the same message: God sees His people, God will purify them, and God will dwell with them again.
“Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I am returned to Sion, and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem”
— Zacharias 8:3, Douay-Rheims
The Prophet of Holy Week
Zechariah may be the Old Testament prophet most quoted in the story of Jesus’ Passion.
He foretold a humble King riding on a donkey:
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem: BEHOLD THY KING will come to thee, the just and saviour: he is poor, and riding upon an ass”
— Zacharias 9:9, Douay-Rheims
Five centuries later, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and St. Matthew pointed straight back to this verse.
(See Palm Sunday.)
He spoke of a shepherd struck down and his sheep scattered (Zacharias 13:7), words Jesus applied to Himself on the night He was arrested (Matthew 26:31).
He spoke of thirty pieces of silver thrown to the potter (Zacharias 11:12–13).
And he saw this:
“and they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced: and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for an only son”
— Zacharias 12:10, Douay-Rheims
St. John quotes that line at the foot of the Cross (John 19:37).
(See Good Friday.)
Not to Be Confused With…
The Bible has about thirty men named Zechariah.
The most famous besides the prophet is Zachary, the father of St. John the Baptist, who sang the Benedictus in Luke 1.
They lived more than five hundred years apart.
Today’s saint is the prophet of the Old Testament.
(See Birth of St. John the Baptist.)
What St. Zechariah Teaches Us
Zechariah teaches us that God remembers His promises, even when we feel forgotten.
He teaches us that small beginnings matter, because the rebuilt Temple was much smaller than the old one, and God still filled it with His glory.
And he teaches us that every page of the Old Testament points toward Jesus.
When Is the Feast of St. Zechariah?
The Catholic Church remembers St. Zechariah the Prophet on September 6 in the Roman Martyrology.
Prayer Inspired by St. Zechariah
Lord God,
You remembered Your people when they felt forgotten
and sent Your prophet Zechariah to call them back to You.
Turn our hearts to You,
help us rebuild what sin has broken,
and open our eyes to see Your Son, the humble King,
in every page of Your Word.
St. Zechariah, pray for us. Amen.
