John the Baptist

JOHN THE BAPTIST. - Precursor of Jesus in preaching and in Baptism, whence he took his name (ὁ βαπτιστής "the baptizer": Mt. 3:1, etc.). Jesus extols his personality and his ministry, placing him above the prophets and above every man born of woman, designating him a strong and austere man and comparing him to a "burning and shining lamp" and to Elijah for his spirit. J. marks the end of the law and the prophets and gives the start to the new evangelical era (Mt. 11:7-9, 11; Lk. 7:24-28; Mt. 9:13 ff.; 17:12; Mk. 9:12 ff.; Jn. 5:35). He precedes the Messiah to bear witness to him and, by preaching and baptizing the crowds of Israel, disposes them to the conversion of the soul and to producing fruits of good works, so that they may enter the messianic economy. He will descend into the shadows to let him grow whom he considers infinitely higher than himself (Jn. 3:29 ff.), concluding his mission with martyrdom.

A fitting preparation precedes his mission: the prophecies of Is. 40:3 and of Mal. 3:1, the intervention of the angel Gabriel, the prodigies of his sanctification in his mother's womb, of his birth and of the imposition of the name, the visit of the Mother of Jesus to St. Elizabeth, an austere life spent in the deserts. A popular movement forms at once around him, the religious authority takes an interest in him and does not hinder him. He refuses what does not belong to him, but firmly affirms what he is: "the voice of the Precursor" (Jn. 1:19-27). At the center of his activity is the conferring of baptism on Jesus on the banks of the Jordan. Flavius Josephus (Antiq. Iud., XVIII, 5, 2) praises his preaching, his baptism and his martyrdom. More detailed accounts come from the Gospels.

The parents of J. B. were the priest Zechariah (v.), who belonged to the priestly class of Abijah, and Elizabeth, herself also descended from priestly stock, at least on her mother's side (Lk. 1:5) and related (ἡ συγγενίς = aunt or cousin?) to the b. Virgin (Lk. 1:36). Both were old but righteous and blameless (Lk. 1:5-6); they had no children. Like that of Samson and of Samuel, the birth of J. B. came about in a miraculous manner. Lk. 1:5-25 describes its particulars. The angel Gabriel appears to Zechariah in the "Holy Place," at the right of the altar of incense, while he is offering the oblation of incense, and communicates to him that, his prayer (to hasten the coming of the Messiah?) having been heard, he would be the father of the Precursor of the awaited Messiah.

Gabriel reveals that J. "will be great before God, a perpetual nāšir and full of the Holy Spirit," that is, with original sin taken away from him, he will be adorned with sanctifying Grace and with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit (not with the gift of prophecy alone: Konrad) while he is still in his mother's womb (and not "from the moment of birth or of infancy": Konrad, Loisy, Plummer), according to Buzy at the moment when he "leaped" for joy. His mission resembles that of Elijah, whose spirit and power he was to possess (1 Kings 17-20), to reknit the bonds of domestic society and to lead the unbelieving back to sentiments of justice and piety, as was foretold in Mal. 3:23-24 (Lk. 1:17), so as to prepare a "perfect people" for the coming of the Messiah.

The angel assigns the name to be given him: Ἰωάννης is the Hebrew Ṭēhōḫānān "Yahweh is gracious." To Zechariah, who asks for a "sign" of confirmation (probably from a lack of trust), he foretells that he will be mute until the birth of the child. Elizabeth hides her pregnancy for 3 months, attributing to God the merit of her motherhood. Then she receives the welcome and august visit of the b. Virgin, who, as soon as she had learned from Gabriel himself (v. ANNUNCIATION) that her old and barren relative was in the sixth month of pregnancy through the intervention of the dynamis of God ("with whom nothing is impossible"), had promptly gone to her to render her services. With a wealth of particulars, Luke relates the scene of the meeting of the two relatives and the "leaping" for joy of J. B. in his mother's womb, who was "filled with the Holy Spirit" in acclaiming Mary. Mary Most Holy remained with Elizabeth 3 months, therefore until the birth of J. B. The place of the visitation is indicated in a generic way: εἰς πόλιν Ἰούδα, to be translated "into a city of Judah," situated in a mountainous region. Various identifications have been proposed (Machaerus, Sebaste, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Hebron, Juttah, Judah of Naphtali, Bethzachara, Beit-Sa'kar), but the most probable is the traditional one of St. John in Montana, 'Ajn Kārim (v.), 6 km. west of Jerusalem, where two sanctuaries are venerated: that of the Birth of J. B. and that of the Visitation. In 1941-42 excavations were carried out there by the Franciscan Fathers.

Eight days after his birth, J. B. was circumcised and the name was given him, while Zechariah, having recovered his speech, intoned amid the wonder of the neighbors the Benedictus (v.), in which he extols the mission of the Precursor, intended to prepare the ways of God and to teach the people the way of salvation in the remission of sins (Lk. 1:8-78). According to Jn. 1:7-8 J. B. was to "bear witness to the light, so that all might believe through him." Lk. 1:80 describes the physical, intellectual and moral development of the child: "he grew and became strong in spirit." Afterwards he went to dwell "in the deserts." An expression that indicates a nomadic tenor of life, spent now in one desert, now in another, that is, in the zone comprised between el-'Āṣūr and the south-east of the Dead Sea, in which are found the deserts of Ziph, Engedi, Maon, etc. However, the name "desert" may well indicate a solitary tract, even if not desolate. A tradition later than the 12th century places it 5-6 km. from 'Ajn Kārim, a picturesque spot near the village of Soba. It is not known at what age J. B. went to live in the deserts. According to the legend, gathered from the apocrypha, Elizabeth would have brought him there at the time of the massacre of the innocents and God would have protected her there, hiding her miraculously with the child inside a rock. Lk. 1:60 could also mean that this happened at a tender age (cf. the liturgical hymn: Antra deserti teneris sub annis - civium turmas fugium, petisti). The parents of J. B., moreover, already advanced in age, could not have survived him long.

In the deserts the young nāšir led an austere life. At the beginning of his ministry he dressed either in a loincloth of hard skin around his hips and a rough mantle, woven of camel's hair, thrown over his shoulders; or in a tunic, woven of camel's hair, drawn tight at the hips with a coarse leather belt. His food consisted of locusts (a lawful food: Lev. 11:22) and wild honey (from bees, and not vegetable, exuded from the tamarix: μέλι ἄγριον), that is, of chance foods, on which the Bedouins also feed. He remained in the deserts until the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judea. If the 15th year is computed from the death of Augustus (19 Aug. 767 of Rome), it corresponds to the year 28-29 A.D.; if instead from the association with Augustus (Jan. 765 of Rome), it corresponds to 26-27 A.D.

G. B. received directly from God the order to begin his mission (Luke 3:1-2), and he settled in the desert of Judea, near the Jordan, that is, between the mountains of Judea, Jericho and the Dead Sea. With the spirit and power of Elijah, with the ascendancy that came to him from asceticism and from his divine vocation, G. B. "prepares the ways of the Lord," leveling the tells, filling the wadis, widening and straightening the paths, by preaching the necessity of conversion (μετάνοια) and "of the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins," since the "Kingdom of God" was at hand. He addresses various social classes and inveighs against the hypocritical Pharisees and Sadducees, proclaiming that belonging to the stock of Abraham is not enough for salvation, but demanding positive fruits of good works. In a climate of anxious messianic expectation, G. B. arouses much enthusiasm; the crowds flock from Jerusalem, from Judea and from the Jordan region, and G. B. baptizes them by immersing them in the Jordan while they confess their sins. This mass movement gave rise to the suspicion that G. B. was the Messiah (Luke 3:15), notwithstanding that he did not belong to the stock of David.

While G. B. was baptizing at Bethany (v.), beyond the Jordan, the Jewish authority (the Sanhedrin?) sent from Jerusalem an embassy of priests and Levites, among whom were some Pharisees, to ask him whether he was the Messiah, Elijah or the Prophet (John 1:19-28). G. B. denied it, proclaiming that he was only "the voice crying in the wilderness foretold by Isaiah" (40:3) and bearing witness to the superiority of Jesus' mission, as he had done before (John 1:15-18) and as he would do later (John 1:29-37). Indeed, he considers it so sublime that he does not deem himself worthy to "untie his sandals." His Baptism is as much superior to his own as spirit and fire are superior to water. He is the Lamb (v.) of God (for his gentleness and for his atoning virtue), the one who takes away the sin of the world. He is the Messiah, he is the Son of God. He possesses a devouring fire, he holds the winnowing fan and the sieve to sift the deeds of humanity, which he must judge.

Jesus chose to present himself to G. B. to receive baptism from him. The wondrous scene with the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove is described vividly by the Synoptics (Matt. 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21 ff.).

According to Matt. 3:13-14, G. B. knows Jesus and his mission from the moment he presents himself to him for baptism. Hence he tries to decline; according to John 1:33-34, on the other hand, G. B. did not know him; indeed, he recognized him from the sign of the descent of the Holy Spirit. St. John Chrysostom and St. Augustine, then other authors, have proposed various solutions (cf. Buzy [v. bibl.] pp. 191-95). It seems possible to reconcile the two Evangelists by understanding that to G. B., at the moment of beginning the ministry of Precursor, was revealed the One who was to baptize in the Spirit, and in confirmation he was given the sign of the descent of the symbolic dove; "he did not know Jesus" because before that revelation he was ignorant of his mission: οὐκ ᾔδειν αὐτὸν does not refer to the moment immediately before the request for baptism, but to the time preceding the revelation, and concerns not the person of Jesus, whom he must have known, but his mission.

G. B. formed disciples: among these Jesus recruited the first Apostles (Andrew, Simon, John, Philip, Nathanael), all Galileans, which shows that G. B.'s influence extended far. They were tenacious in following G. B. Besides having received baptism from him, they imitated his asceticism (fasting and prayers: Matt. 9:9-14; Mark 2:13-18; Luke 5:27-33; Matt. 11:1), they followed him to Aenon, Bethany, Machaerus, etc.; nor did they look favorably on his being overshadowed by Jesus. G. B., however, on various occasions reaffirms his inferiority before Jesus and directs them to him.

The beginnings of the preaching of Jesus and of G. B. are reported with the same terms (Matt. 3:2; 4:17). G. B. begins in the Gôr; then he crosses the Jordan and goes to Bethany (v.), where he receives the embassy of the Sanhedrists (John 1:28). While Jesus preaches in Judea (John 3:22) surrounded by disciples, G. B. moves to Aenon (v.) near Salim, rich in water (John 3:23), where a discussion takes place between the disciples of G. B. and a Jew regarding purification. Then they go to G. B. to point out to him, with poorly concealed envy, the grandiose successes of Jesus. G. B. responds by affirming once again his superiority, considering his own mission accomplished; he concludes with generous humility: "He must increase: I must decrease" (John 3:25-36), inviting them to follow Jesus.

The opinion of Goguel (La vie de Jésus [v. bibl.], p. 255 f.), according to which Jesus would have been a disciple of G. B., from whom he would have separated following divergences regarding purifications (Baptism), and that therefore the latter would have considered him an unfaithful disciple and almost a renegade, has no foundation. Nor are there contradictions between John 3:26; 4:1 and 3:32; between 3:22; 4:1 and 4:2; nor traces of reworking in the story of G. B. in John 3:22-4:31.

G. B. continued his mission with courage and frankness, reproving vices and inviting to penance. But since he publicly reproached the tetrarch of Galilee, Herod Antipas (v.), for the incestuous and adulterous marriage with Herodias, his niece and the wife of his brother Philip still living, the tetrarch, perhaps fearing that the powerful eloquence of G. B. might provoke uprisings among the people (certainly scandalized by his conduct), had him arrested (at Tiberias or at Livias?) and thrown in chains into the prison (according to Flavius Josephus) of Machaerus (el-Mukāwer, in the mountains of Moab, between the Zerqā Mā'in and the Arnon, at 1100 m. above the level of the Dead Sea). It is not known how long he remained there.

According to Matt. 11:2, 7 and Luke 7:18-23, then he heard talk of the progress of Jesus' mission and decided to send two of his disciples to put to him the question: "Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another?" Jesus answered the envoys, instructing them to report to G. B. (after having performed miracles in their presence) that "the blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf had been healed, the dead raised, the poor evangelized," as Isaiah had foretold (35:5-6; 61:1), adding moreover: "and blessed is he who will not be scandalized because of me." G. B., who knew and exalted Jesus' mission, at least

1. GIOVANNI BATTISTA

Meeting of Jesus and G. B. Painting of the school of Filippo Lippi (15th century) - Berlin, National Museum.

from the moment of the baptism, cannot now begin to believe in it (Loisy). His attitude, however, is interpreted in different ways. Some believe that in the squalor of the prison of Machaerus he may have harbored some doubt about the mission of Jesus, or some impatience to see the Kingdom of God realized as soon as possible (cf. Buzy, pp. 286-306); or that he wished to stimulate Jesus to reveal himself with greater decisiveness and clarity. The more common opinion is that G. B. wished to provoke from Jesus an explicit declaration of his messiahship in order to persuade his disciples of it. This is in conformity with the praise that Jesus gives to G. B. after the departure of the envoys. Indeed he proclaims him the herald of the Messiah, superior to the saints of the Old Testament, the link between the Old and the New Testament; he is not a reed shaken by the wind, or a delicate man, but an ascetic; he is more than a prophet; he is Elijah!

Antipas gladly listened to G. B. in prison, remaining ever more troubled by him. But Herodias hated him to death and had decided to silence him forever. Antipas did not want to permit it because he venerated him and feared for the people who considered him a prophet. When Antipas's birthday was being celebrated, during the banquet given to the high officials and the aristocracy of Galilee, at Machaerus, the daughter of Herodias (Salome) performed dances that pleased Antipas so much that he promised her with an oath to grant her whatever she asked, "even half of the kingdom." The girl consulted her mother, who suggested that she have the head of G. B. brought to her at once on a platter. Antipas was saddened, but because of the oath made before the guests, he judged that he should not refuse her. The executioner beheaded G. B. in the prison and brought the head to Salome, who handed it over to her mother. St. Ambrose, with poetic accents, emphasizes the value of the martyrdom of G. B. and the cruelty of those who ordered it (De Virg., III: PL 16, 233 ff.).

The disciples saw to it that the body was taken away and buried. Antipas and the people, afterward, believed that G. B. had risen and was working prodigies in the person of Jesus (Lk. 9:7-9; Mk. 6:14-16). The crime of Antipas, according to Flavius Josephus (Antiq. Jud., XVIII, 7, 2), made a strong impression on the people, who esteemed him "a good man," and many, in the bloody defeat of the army of Antipas by Aretas, king of the Nabataeans and father of the wife of Antipas set aside for Herodias, saw a punishment of God for the killing of G. B.

The fortunes of his relics were varied (Sebaste in Palestine, Alexandria in Egypt, Samaria, Constantinople). The places where he had preached were soon venerated by the faithful (Aenon, Sapsas, the Jordan, Sebaste, 'Ajn Karim, Zifata).

The disciples of G. B., who were not organized like the Apostles, perhaps passed over to Christianity after the master's death. According to Acts 19:1-7, a group of 12 faithful in Ephesus had received only the baptism of G. B.; the case of Apollos is famous (Acts 18:24-26). Later there is mention of the sects of the Johannites, the Hemerobaptists, etc. (cf. Buzy, pp. 370-72). G. B. occupies a prominent place in the theological conceptions of the Mandaeans (v.). Rome has dedicated its Cathedral to him (St. John Lateran, "omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput").

Rationalist criticism has attempted to cast doubt on the historicity of the miraculous birth of John the Baptist, treating it as "prehistory," to minimize his ministry, and to regard his martyrdom as popular legend (Goguel). But the historicity of the Gospel data cannot be doubted, since it presents itself with an abundance of details and with all the requirements of credibility; it is confirmed, moreover, by Flavius Josephus.

According to Catholics, the baptism of John the Baptist differed from that of Jesus because it was meant to stimulate repentance and to symbolize inner purity, and it forgave sins not ex opere operato but ex opere operantis, that is, by virtue of the individual's dispositions, intuitu meritorum Christi.

G. B. non era uno ioghi indiano (Renan), né un esseno (Graetz, Rubinstein). Rappresenta il Vecchio

Testament that is purified in the desert of Judah as in the time of Moses on Sinai, and dwells there in the state of vigor and simplicity like Adam and Eve in the earthly Paradise, and comes forth from it with the power of a lion, preaching the necessity of purification and of good works in order to go to meet the Messiah who founds the Kingdom of God. G. B. is not the light, but the prism that reflects it (Jn. 1:8); he is not the Messiah, but the one who echoes his voice (Jn. 1:20-23); he is not the bridegroom, but the paranymph who presents the bride to him (Jn. 3:29); he does not have Baptism in the Spirit (Mt. 3:11), but baptizes the one who gives life in the Spirit (Mt. 3:13-17); he is "the greatest among those born of woman" (Mt. 11:11).

Bonaventura Mariani

LITURGY

The praise of St. John the Baptist given by Our Lord (Mt. 11:11) and the singular circumstances of his imprisonment and death (ibid. 14:1-12) conferred, from the 4th century onward, an exceptionally universal character on the cult of the Precursor, due also to the discovery and rapid diffusion of his relics, true or supposed, and to the interest that monks took in their prototype. In relation to his mission as Baptist, oratories were dedicated to him by preference in the baptisteries. In Palestine, from the close of the 4th century, the existence of sanctuaries on the places sacred to the Precursor is attested, as, for example, in the locality where he baptized Christ at Qaṣr el-Jehūd and on the tomb that was believed to exist at Sebaste (cf. St. Jerome, Comm. in Osee and Comm. in Michaeam, I, 1: PL. 25, 825, 1156). From the same period in the East and in the West the number of sacred buildings dedicated to him begins to increase, and in the Middle Ages they multiplied in an extraordinary way. At Constantinople there were, for example, about fifteen sacred buildings among oratories, baptisteries and churches, including that of Hebdomon where the emperor Theodosius was said to have had the head deposited; at Rome at least ten were counted: worth remembering are the oratory of the Lateran Baptistery and, subsequently, the basilica of the same name, dedicated to the Savior, of which the Precursor became the co-patron; in the late Middle Ages it was believed that his head was possessed in St. Sylvester "in capite". At Ravenna, under Galla Placidia, a basilica was erected to him; St. Benedict and Theodelinda dedicated basilicas to him at Montecassino and at Monza.

As for his festal cycle, it must be borne in mind that it was established in relation to the Nativity of Christ on Dec. 25. The Conceptio (Sept. 23 in the East, Sept. 24 in the West), mentioned in the Hieronymian Martyrology and in the Synaxaria, is today a purely Eastern feast. The Mozarabic calendars commemorate on Sept. 24 the Decollatio (cf. J. Vives-A. Fabura, Calendarios hispanicos anteriores al siglo XII, in Hispania sacra, 2 [1949], p. 27; id., ...anteriores al siglo XIII, ibid., pp. 22, 28, 34, 40, the articles have their own numbering). The Natale genuinum, the birth (June 24; note the parallelism of the Kalends: VIII Kal. Iul. = June 24, VIII Kal. Oct. = Sept. 24, VIII Kal. Ian. = Dec. 25), and the Passio, the decollation (Aug. 29, a date that commemorates not the decollation but a translation of relics), are feasts still common to the two Churches and are already attested by St. Augustine (Serm. 196, 287, 288-93; PL. 38, 1021, 1301-35), by the Hieronymian Martyrology, by the Roman Sacramentaries (the Leonianum has only the 24th, not the 29th; the Gelasianum has both), by the Synaxaria and Menologia. The Synaxaria also commemorate a synaxis in his honor on the day after the Epiphany. The Council of Agde (can. 21) of 506 counts the feast of June 24 among the major feasts, and it remained of obligation until the beginning of the 20th century. The feast, already preceded by a vigil with fasting and followed by an octave, was, especially in Rome, poly-liturgical until about the 11th century (double nocturnal Office, cf. Amalarius, Liber de ordine Antiphonarii, 59, three or two Masses of which one ad fontem, cf. the various Sacramentaries). The hymns of the office are by the Cassinese monk Paul the Deacon (d. 799); from the first of them Guido d'Arezzo extracted the names of the musical notes.

A. Pietro Frutaz

ARCHAEOLOGY

Early Christian art depicted the Precursor in the scenes of the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan. In the cemetery of Callistus, in the region called that of Lucina, J. B. is beardless and wears the exomis (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. 29, p. 237); in the same cemetery, in cubiculum A3, he wears only the exomis tunic (id., op. cit., pl. 23, 3, p. 238) as in the cemetery "ad duas lauros" (id., Ein Cyclus Christologischer Gemälde aus der Katakombe der heiligen Petrus und Marcellinus, Freiburg im Br. 1891, pls. 1-4; id., Pitture, p. 238). In the cemetery of Ponziano the B. is nimbed, with long hair and beard; he wears the exomis and has a long pedum in his left hand (id., op. cit., pl. 259). In sarcophagi he is bearded and wears only the pallium, as on a sarcophagus lid in the Lateran Museum, in the sarcophagus of S. Maria Antiqua (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, pp. 18, 21 and pl. 8, 2), while on the front of sarcophagus 119 of the same Museum he is dressed in a lion skin (id., op. cit., p. 24 and pl. 8, 4), as in a fragment of the Museum of Arles (id., op. cit., p. 21 and pl. 11, 2); in a sarcophagus at the Royal Academy of Madrid he wears the tunic esomide (id., op. cit., p. 22 and pl. 11, 1) which is found again on the lid of the sarcophagus of Gorgonius in the cathedral of Ancona (id., op. cit., p. 23, pl. 14, 3). In an interstice of the columns of the lower level of the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, both the Lord and G. B. are depicted as lambs (F. Gerke, Der Sarkophag des Iunius Bassus, Berlin 1936, pl. 45). G. B. pointing to Christ as the awaited Messiah was represented in the basilica of Sts. John and Paul on the Caelian (498-514); the Cambridge sylloge has preserved its text (A. Silvagni, La silloge epigrafica di Cambridge, in Riv. di arch. crist., 20 [1943], p. 91). Bearded with long hair, and with an animal skin and a staff in his left hand, he is in the mosaic of the baptistery of the Arians in Ravenna, while in the baptistery of the Orthodox he also has the nimbus and holds in his left hand a long gemmed Cross.

In the apse of the oratory of St. Venantius at the Lateran (G. B. De Rossi, Musaici cristiani delle chiese di Roma anteriori al sec. XV, Rome 1899, pl. 19) and in the mosaic of the cathedral of Parenzo G. B. has the nimbus, wears a tunic and pallium, makes the oratorical gesture with his right hand and clasps a long Cross with his left (Wilpert, Mosaiken, p. 928, fig. 442).

In a miniature of the codex of Cosmas Indicopleustes in the Vatican Library (8th-9th century) G. B. is represented with a nimbus, bearded, with long hair, in tunic and pallium; he clasps a long Cross in his left hand (C. Stornajolo, Le miniature della topografia di Cosmas Indicopleuste, Milan 1908, f. 76).

On the ivory chair of Maximian in Ravenna, surrounded by the four Evangelists, stands the Precursor; he is bearded, in tunic and pallium, and over this he has a camel skin; in his left hand he holds a disc on which the divine lamb is engraved. Also in sacred vestment he appears on an ivory of the Museum of Lyon (G. De Jerphanion, La voix des monuments, Paris 1930, pl. 33); he has the nimbus in addition in the frescoes of Deledjlar Kilissé (id., op. cit., pl. 34), of Elmale Kilissé and of Toqale Kilissé and of Djémil in Cappadocia (id., op. cit., pl. 35, 1 and 2); in the miniatures of the Gospel of Iviron, in the Urbinate Vatican Evangelary; in the Syriac ms. 535 of the National Library of Paris, in the baptismal font of Liège. With nimbus, beard and long hair and in tunic and pallium he is in the apse mosaic of the Lateran of the year 1290 (G. B. De Rossi, Musaici cristiani, pl. 37).

The martyrdom of G. B. is represented in the Evangelary of Sinope (6th century), today in the National Library of Paris, illustrating the Gospel of St. Matthew which gives the narrative of Herod's crime (14, 6-12); later in a miniature of a Missal of Chartres of the 9th century (J. Psichari, Salomé et la décollation de st Jean-Baptiste, in Revue de l'histoire des religions, 72 [1915], pp. 131-58). Strzygowski proposed to recognize the head of the Precursor in a fragment of papyrus on which is painted a head severed from the body placed upon a platter (Eine alexandrinische Weltchronik, in Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosoph. Histor. Klasse, Vienna, 51 [1906], p. 153, fig. 12 and pl. 8). Also in the mosaics of St. Mark's in Venice Salome is represented in the act of holding on her head the platter with the head of G. B.

The scene of his martyrdom was also represented in the mosaic of the atrium of the Lateran Basilica, from the time of Alexander III (1159-81; Wilpert, Mosaiken, p. 212).

Enrico Josi

ICONOGRAPHY

While in antiquity the type of the B. in a hair shirt or clothed in skins alternates with the type in sacred vestments, in tunic and pallium, during the Middle Ages the two types are by then fused, and the B. is represented clothed in skins, while he points to the lamb with a cross-halo or to the figure of Christ who is generally near him (v., for example, the reliefs in the cathedral of Ferrara and in the church of S. Zeno in Verona).

The figure of the Precursor enjoyed particular fortune during the Renaissance, and its cause could even be identified in the preference that the artist of this period had for naturalistic forms, so much so that, it has been noted, the B. is the most represented after St. Sebastian and St. Jerome. In this preference is also to be sought the reason that leads precisely the figure of the B., in Italian art, to become humanized, to lose definitively the hieratic quality with which it had been treated by the Byzantines - a humanization that is already exemplified in the 14th century in those representations of the young St. John led into the desert by the angel, such as that of the small panel from Rimini in the Vatican Pinacoteca.

The representations of the B. in isolation are very numerous, from the sculptural one by Ghiberti in Orsanmichele, to that by Benedetto da Majano in the National Museum of Florence, to the various ones by Donatello; in painting one may cite those of A. Vivarini at the Accademia in Venice, the solemn one by Cima da Conegliano, the heroic nude by Titian at the Accademia in Venice. As a preacher of the desert, famous is the representation by Veronese in the Galleria Borghese or that by D. Dossi at Brera. Also much represented during the Renaissance is the young St. John who comes to form part of the numerous Holy Families, and in which the little Saint, often with the characteristic signs of his future activity, plays and jokes with the Infant Jesus, as in the most famous works of Raphael and of Leonardo da Vinci.

The cyclic representations, frequent especially in baptisteries (v. that of Florence and that of S. Marco in Venice), offer the unfolding of the life of the B. from his birth (often confused, because iconographically very similar, with that of the Virgin) to his decapitation; certainly among the best known and among those artistically most elevated are the frescoes of Masolino in the Collegiate Church of Castiglion d'Olona. Among the other most important cycles one cites those of Filippo Lippi in the cathedral of Prato, of D. Ghirlandaio in S. Maria Novella, of A. Del Sarto in the cloister of the Scalzo in Florence.

In the painting of the Baroque age, interesting depictions of events from the life of the B. have been left, among others, by Bazzani, the two Tiepolos, and, outside Italy, by P. Trogher.

Gilberto Ronci

FOLKLORE

The feast of St. John the Baptist is the one that gives rise to the most important and characteristic manifestations of popular worship in all the countries of Europe, from Scandinavia to Malta, from Russia to Spain and Greece. It is an entire cycle of ritual forms and customs that begins on the vigil, June 23, and closes with the feast of St. Peter (June 29). The cycle also includes intermediate feasts (St. Eligius, June 25; Sts. John and Paul, June 26). On the evening and night of the vigil the fires of St. John are lit, bonfires made from heaps of straw or brushwood or from piles of wood, sometimes accumulated, as in many parts of France, around a central pole adorned with flower garlands. They are preferably lit on the heights, but also in squares, at crossroads, near churches, etc. Around them, crowds of young men and girls and common folk sing and dance, leaping over the flames with the idea of being cured of various ailments (backache, fever, etc.). Cattle too are driven over the fires or their ashes, always for prophylactic purposes. Extinguished firebrands are kept in homes and displayed against storms. There is also belief in the therapeutic virtues of the smoke released by the fires or by the garlands thrown into them. Torches, bundles of burning straw, candles, lamps, rockets and pinwheels are the mobile aspects that the element of fire, characteristic of the feast, assumes.

In a vast zone of central Europe, reaching as far as the Alps, discs of burning wood (in Carnia called cidulis) are hurled down the mountain slopes amid cries of joy and good wishes: in certain countries of west-central Europe, large burning and garlanded wooden wheels are rolled along. It is a belief widespread everywhere that on the night of St. John waters and herbs acquire supernatural virtues: hence the dew of that night is held to be particularly beneficial for the cure of various ailments; and so the common folk roll on the meadows wet with that dew and drive cattle and flocks across them; women expose garments and fabrics of all kinds in the open air, believing that the dew will preserve them from moths all year. The waters of rivers and of particular springs acquire extraordinary healing powers and people plunge into them repeatedly, or plunge their herds in: the water of the sea becomes sweet and produces the same beneficial effects. Various species of herbs too possess exceptional curative virtues on that night: the common folk gather them and keep them to use as needed. It is customary to steep such herbs in a basin exposed to the night sky, and it is believed that this increases their efficacy: in the morning one washes with that water. The herbs of St. John vary according to different places: among the most common are remembered: St. John's wort (hypericum perforatum), mint, verbena, chamomile, thyme, linden, melilot, elder, artemisia.

On that night lots are also cast, especially by marriageable girls. The methods are the same as those used for New Year's or Epiphany, such as throwing small pieces of molten lead into water and deducing from the shape they take the profession or condition of the future spouse. At crossroads, too, the words of passers-by are listened to, and from them auspicious or inauspicious horoscopes are drawn.

Among friends, male or female, or also among persons of different sex and among children, it is customary to contract comparatico (ritual godparenthood). It is performed with special rites and forms: in Sardinia, from the 1st of April a young man asks for a girl as comare and on the day of St. John they go together in procession to the church outside the village and with a series of festive customs

(libations, songs, dances) celebrate the comparatico. In Sicily children take each other by the little finger of the right hand, each pluck a hair, knot them together and throw them away, singing a little song that recalls the duties of compari. In many regions, especially of southern Italy, the comparatico contracted for St. John is a very strong moral bond and failing in it is considered sacrilege.

It is believed that extraordinary phenomena occur on the night of St. John. Animals are satisfied with nothing: horses speak. The fern blooms and fades within a few hours. Water is transformed into wine. Hidden treasures reveal their presence. From the bowels of the mountains come mournful voices. Submerged cities and castles become visible; burning torches are seen circling around bell towers and then vanishing.

On that same night witches are abroad, endowed with extraordinary powers: certain tarantelle, popular Roman songs that were sung on the night of St. John, allude to this belief. A similar belief is widespread in Norway concerning the troll, evil spirits that come out from the cavernous depths of the mountains magically opened on that night. In the regions facing the sea, the moment when the sun will rise from the waves is awaited with anxiety; it is said that the sun, in rising, dances on the sea, and not only when it emerges, but up to a certain height; or also that it plunges three times into the sea and each time a little white cloud dries its face. In the sphere of the sun one sees the face of St. John washing himself in the sea in a golden basin, or also his head dripping with blood.

By that principle which ethnologists call the "ambivalence of the sacred," St. John can also bring mourning and unforeseen accidents, as if the extraordinary forces acting on this day could also exercise themselves in a harmful sense. Disasters, drownings, etc., are therefore feared. It is also believed that on St. John's day there will be a storm, and special formulas are recited to avert it.

For a long time the theory held the field that the feast of St. John had supplanted a previous solar cult and very ancient rites for the summer solstice; the most recent research tends to deprive such opinions of value and explains the complex of popular customs as a residue of agrarian rites of purification, prophylaxis and propitiation. Nevertheless, in some countries where Christianity took root late, especially in Northern Europe, traces of pre-Christian rites are still visible and references are found there to pagan divinities or mythical figures: Kupalo in Russia, Ligo in Latvia, Balder in Norway.

In Italy, in ancient times, the feast of St. John gave rise in some cities to grandiose manifestations. In Florence the preparations began as early as May and the feast lasted several days, with palios, displays, gifts and public tributes to the chapter of St. John, processions, illuminations, the lighting of fires in Piazza della Signoria, and sacred representations. In Rome, the Pope pontificated at St. John Lateran and blessed the people from the loggia. In Ravenna a very well-attended annual fair took place. Now all these customs are rapidly disappearing or fading: but revivals and updatings are also noted, as, for example, in Rome through the initiative of institutions for popular recreation: in the quarter of St. John the feast is still celebrated with songs, floats, pinwheels, libations: the characteristic food is snails.

The Church has sought to frame, as far as it could, the principal manifestations within liturgical forms, with processions, blessing of fires and springs, etc. - See plates XLII-XLIII.

Paolo Toschi