The Beheading of St John the Baptist
The image shows a section of Caravaggio's Beheading of John the Baptist.
John the Baptist was a man of courage. This feast urges us to stand
firm in our faith and resist the temptation to compromise the gospel
teaching.
At Sebaste, near modern-day Nablus
The tradition
is that after his beheading the disciples of John the Baptist took his
body and buried it at Sebaste (Samaria) near modern-day Nablus in the
West Bank. His relics were certainly honoured there at the middle of the
fourth century and although the tomb was desecrated by Julian the
Apostate, it was restored and still even today is housed in the Nabi
Yahya Mosque ("John the Baptist Mosque") at that same place.
Other relics
Various relics of the head of John
the Baptist are claimed at Rome and elsewhere, but there is little
likelihood that any of them is authentic.
The feast
The feast commemorating the Beheading
of St. John the Baptist is almost as old as that commemorating his
Nativity: it is one of the oldest feasts introduced into both the
Eastern and Western liturgies to honour a saint.
The context of the story: Herod's guilt
The story
of his beheading is told in Mark 6:14-29 in the context of Herod
hearing about Jesus and the miraculous powers at work in him. Herod
feared that this Jesus was John whom he had beheaded risen from the
dead.
What happened
John had reproached King Herod
saying it was against the Law for him to have taken his brother Philip's
wife, Herodias, in marriage. Herod arrested John and put him in prison.
On Herod's birthday, Herodias's daughter danced so beautifully before
Herod and his guests that he promised her anything she asked. Prompted
by her mother, she asked for the head of John the Baptist on a plate.
Herod granted her wish and John was then beheaded.
Representations in art
A famous painting of The Beheading of John the Baptist hangs
in St John's Co-Cathedral in Valetta. It is the only work by Caravaggio
to bear the artist's signature, which he placed in red blood spilling
from the Baptist's cut throat. Other paintings by Caravaggio on the
theme include two entitled Salome with the Head of John the Baptist: one of these is in London's National Gallery and the other in the Royal Palace of Madrid.