The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

Today is one of the more interesting feasts on the liturgical calendar, for today is the feast of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist. OK, nowadays they’ve slightly sanitized the name; it’s now officially called the “Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist”, but for the sheer Catholic joy of calling a spade a spade, I’m sticking with the old name.

As an aside, this painting is one of my son’s favourites. Now I’m a big fan of Caravaggio myself, but this one has always seemed a little rough to me in terms of technique.

Of course, perhaps that’s to emphasize John’s own Grizzly Adams brand of roughness.

The story of John’s beheading, of course, is told in the Gospels. In brief, King Herod imprisoned John because he was preaching against Herod’s divorce of his Queen to take his sister-in-law Herodias as his wife. Then:

Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody. When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him. She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee.

Herodias’s own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.” He even swore [many things] to her, “I will grant you whatever you ask of me, even to half of my kingdom.”

She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the Baptist.” The girl hurried back to the king’s presence and made her request, “I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”

The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her. So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him in the prison. He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl. The girl in turn gave it to her mother.

When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

(Mark 6:20-29)

And that of course is the lingering image: Herodias’ daughter Salome with John’s head on a plate.

I note that the title of Caravaggio’s painting is “Salome”, which would indicate that it’s her portrait. If so, it’s interesting that the entire focus of the piece is on John’s head – Herodias and the soldier are looking at it, drawing our eyes to it. Only Salome looks elsewhere.

Saint John the Baptist is one of the few saints who has more than one feast on the calendar – his Nativity is celebrated on June 24. Today, in fact, is not even actually the anniversary of his beheading. According to the venerable Martyrology, that actually occurred somewhere near to Passover.

The Twenty-Ninth Day of August: The beheading of Saint John the Baptist, whom Herod ordered to be beheaded about the Feast of the Pasch; but his memory is solemnly kept on this day, on which his venerated head was found for the second time. It was afterwards translated to Rome and is preserved in the church of Saint Sylvester in Capite and honoured by the people with great devotion.

I have written on the Baptist himself before, so I will simply close with some word’s from this blog’s patron, Saint Bede the Venerable, and a prayer:

To endure temporal agonies for the sake of the truth was not a heavy burden for such men as John; rather it was easily borne and even desirable, for he knew eternal joy would be his reward.

Since death was ever near at hand, such men considered it a blessing to embrace it and thus gain the reward of eternal life by acknowledging Christ’s name. Hence the apostle Paul rightly says: “You have been granted the privilege not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for his sake.” He tells us why it is Christ’s gift that his chosen ones should suffer for him: “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.”

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

O God, who willed that Saint John the Baptist
should go ahead of your Son
both in his birth and in his death,
grant that, as he died a Martyr for truth and justice,
we, too, may fight hard
for the confession of what you teach.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.