John And The Greatest

Διὰ τί μείζων ἐν γεννητοῖς γυναικῶν, ἔφης, Ιωάννης, καὶ εἰ προφήτης ὁ Ἰωάννης, τί ἦν ἐν αὐτῷ περισσότερον προφήτου; Ἐπειδὴ τοῦτο λέγει ὁ Κύριος. Ἄκους τοίνυν πλεῖστα ἐν ὀλίγοις· μείζων ἐν γεννητοῖς γυναικῶν ὁ Ἰωάννης, ἐπειδὴ ἐξ αὐτῆς νηδύος μητρικής προεφήτευσε, καὶ ἐν σκότει κρυπτόμενος,τὸ φῶς ἐλθὸν, οὐκ ἠγνόησε. Περισσότερον δὲ προφητῶν, τὸ καὶ αὐτὸν ἰδεῖν ἐν σαρκὶ τὸν προφητευόμενον, ὃν πάντες οἱ πατριάρχαι καὶ προφῆται, δι' ὀνείρωνμὲν ἢ ὀπτασιῶν ἐφαντάσθησαν, θεωρῆσαι δὲ αὐτοψει οὐκ ἐπέτυχον. Ἅγιος Ἰσίδωρος Του Πηλουσιώτου, Βιβλίον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολὴ ΛΓ’, Προυνιχιῳ Source: Migne 78.201d-204a

You ask why it was said that John was the greatest born of women, 1 and as he was a prophet, if had a a certain greater and more excellent dignity of prophecy, since this is what the Lord said. Hear, then, much in little. John was the greatest born among women because he made prophecy from out of the maternal womb and hidden in the darkness was not ignorant of the light that had come. 2 This is why he stands ahead of the other prophets and also because when he was preaching he saw Him in the flesh, which all the patriarchs and prophets had till  then been told about in dreams and visions, but they were not able to look upon Him themselves. Saint Isidore of Pelusium, Book 1, Letter 33, To Prounichios 1 Mt 11.11 2 Lk 1.41