We had gone to visit Sister Catherine aka Sister Mary, Celeste's first cousin twice removed, who's a nun. She has a spirtual advisor, Thomas, who told us about how St. John the baptist's head had been lost and then found twice.

After talking to Thomas, I wondered where St. John the Baptist's head was now. Well, I found out that that was a a THIRD finding of his head, after which they figured it would be easier to keep track of if people would stop stealing it back in forth, so they just broke it into a bunch a of pieces and gave one to whoever wanted one. So have two goals: one is to see all the pieces of his head (there's got to be a special blessing for that) and the other is about icons. Icons are not just the little 'E' you click on to launch your web browser. Long before computers, people drew pictures of saints that had symbols in them that told stories of miracles and whatnot. The icon of the head being found has in it An intact St John, two heads in caves, a little plant and some holy people clustering around the caves. At least that's one version. There are many versions. So, as Russia was big on icons and we're pretty sure the head isn't there (appropriately enough, there are about three heads that are suppossed to be his. Apparently, if you're going to counterfit heads, his is the one to do.), we started looking for these icons.

Of course, there's a feast day associated with this head business. There are three. The beheading, the third finding and "The First and Second Finding of The Precious Head of St. John the Forerunner and Baptist."

So I think instead of St. Jude, John should be the patron saint of lost things. And of headaches. Actually, he already is of headaches. Who says religious people don't have a sense of humor? So now you know.

And.... His head: