The Wild Tale Of How John The Baptist’s Head Ended Up In France’s Largest Cathedral
January 31, 2023 by SkyWatch Editor
On the evening of Sept. 8, 1206, Walon de Sarton, a minor cleric who had participated in the crusader capture of Constantinople in April 1204, made an astonishing discovery. In an alcove between the main altar and a building “where,” according to his own testimony, “no living creature lived,” a former pleasure palace of emperors, he had hoped to recite his prayers discreetly when his eyes fell upon a window stuffed with straw and other stray matter. Someone clearly had wanted to hide something but had neither the time nor the materials to seal the opening with mortar. In the pillaging of the Byzantine capital, there had been many such attempts to conceal precious secular and religious objects from the avid French and Venetian raiders. Removing the straw, Walon found a vase containing the remains of a finger and an arm, with other objects further in the recess. Reaching beyond the vase, he felt two leather pouches, and, opening them, two large silver plates. In the safety of his room, he looked at the two silver dishes and noticed that each contained fragments of writing in Greek. On one, the inscription, “ΑΓΙΟΣ ΓΕΟΡΓΙΟΣ,” and, on the other, “ΑΓΙΟΣ ΙΟΑΝΝΗΣ ΠΡΟΔΡΟΜΟΣ.” Neither understanding Greek nor wanting to ask anyone for help, for fear of revealing what he had found, Walon wandered from church to church in Constantinople until he came upon images with similar letters. Imagine his surprise at learning that his discovery of the evening of September 8 was none other than the heads of Saint George and of Saint John the Baptist, as indicated by the word “ΠΡΟΔΡΟΜΟΣ,” “Precursor.” John, whose own birth was shrouded in mystery, proclaimed the arrival of Christ whom he baptized in the River Jordan before himself meeting a violent death at the hands of King Herod… (READ MORE)