Saint John the Baptist

Church of San Miguel Achiutla, Oaxaca, Mexico

As usual St. John the Baptist is represented wearing a mantle over a simple tunic of camel skins. In most other images the tunic hangs from both shoulders. The pennon on the cross reads Ecce agnus dei qui tollit, "Behold the lamb of God, who takes away [the sins of the world]."

The skinned knees are quite unusual. Perhaps they were meant to relate the saint's passion to that of Christ, whose Mexican santos often have skinned knees.

Read more about images of St. John the Baptist

• Home Page
• Iconography of St. John the Baptist
• This Picture

Photographed at the church by Richard and Claire Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.