Zechariah father of John the Baptist

Luke's gospel opens on him: a priest of the division of Abijah, married to Elizabeth, both old and childless. Chosen by lot to offer incense in the sanctuary, he sees the angel Gabriel announce a son, doubts aloud, and comes out mute before the waiting crowd. He recovers speech only on the eighth day, writing the child's name on a tablet — John — and then pronounces the canticle Benedictus, which the Church has sung at morning prayer since the sixth century. Tradition later made him a martyr, killed between the sanctuary and the altar, but the Gospel says nothing of his death.