Statue of St Bernard/St John the Baptist

Statue of St Bernard/St John the Baptist

A saint with a false beard

Above the front gate is a statue of St John the Baptist, patron of both the college and the Merchant Taylors. During building work in 1915, it was discovered that the stone figure’s hair and beard were of a different material and had been added later. It seems that an older statue depicting St Bernard, a clean-shaven monk, was remodelled as the unshorn St John when these pre-Reformation buildings acquired a new patron.

Return to exhibition

Museum of Oxford

Photo credits: By permission of the President and Fellows of St. John’s College, Oxford
Image 1: MUN LXXXII.129 (Henry Taunt, 1916)
Image 2: MUN LXXXII.145 (unknown photographer, 1961)

Image 1: A weathered statue of a man in a stone alcove. He wears robes and has long hair and a beard. There is a definite line where the beard connects to the man's chin.

Image 2: The same statue, but it has been restored. The man now has short hair and his beard is gone.