August 29th is the Feast Day of the Beheading of St John the Baptist. What is purported to be the skull of the saint is enshrined in the church of San Silvestro in Capite.
According to the New Testament, Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee under the Roman Empire, imprisoned John because he had publicly reproved him for divorcing his first wife and unlawfully marrying Herodias, who had been his brother’s wife. As punishment, Herod ordered John's beheading. Comments are closed.
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My name is David Lown and I am an art historian from Cambridge, England. Since 2001 I have lived in Italy, where I run private walking tours of Rome.
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September 2023
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