St John the Baptist

Pilgrim badge of St John the Baptist from the shrine at Amiens in France. The cult began at Amiens in 1206 when the crusader Walon de Sarton brought back part of John the Baptist’s skull and its silver dish after the sack of Constantinople. Pilgrims flocked to Amiens cathedral to see the relic and bought souvenirs of their visit. This circular, openwork badge depicts John the Baptist’s head being revealed from behind a curtain – under his chin is a swag of material. A priest is shown holding the head from behind and his is flanked by two figures holding torches. John the Baptist’s head is shown as a circular, hairless face, almost like a ‘man-in-the-moon’, which is typical of Amiens badges dating from the mid 14th to the mid 15th centuries. The badge has a circular frame with an inscription: ‘ECCE : SINGNVM : FACIEI : BEATI : IOH[ANN]IS : BAPTISTE’ (meaning ‘Here is the sign of the face of the blessed John the Baptist’). There are two stitching loops remaining on the frame, which would have been used to sew the badge onto its wearer’s clothes.