E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
John the Baptist.
Patron saint of missionaries. He was sent “to prepare the way of the Lord.”
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In Christian art he is represented in a coat of sheepskins, in allusion to his life in the desert; either holding a rude wooden cross, with a pennon bearing the words, Ecce Agnus Dei, or with a book on which a lamb is seated; or holding in his right hand a lamb surrounded by a halo, and bearing a cross on the right foot.
