“St John the Baptist with Sts Peter, Mark, Jerome and Paul”, Church of Madonna dell’ Orto, Venice. 1493-5, Giovanni Batista Cima, known as Cima da Conegliano.
St John the points upwards to the open sky above and looks towards the actual daylight coming from the adjacent window. Like the light, most of the elements in the painting have symbolic meaning. The ruined classical vault refers to pagan antiquity. There is an owl perched at the very top. For us an owl is a symbol of wisdom, but it might also represent the night into which the light of Christ comes like the dawn. So John the Baptist represents the advent of faith in Christ, standing at the end of an old order which will give way to the new age of the Church. The painting is positioned so that light comes from the East. The patrons were engaged in the Levantine spice trade which brought them into contact with a non-Christian world. This painting may have been as much about conversion of non-Christians as the repentance of those already baptised.
The Catholic Chaplaincy serves the students and staff of the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier University and Queen Margaret University.
The Catholic Chaplaincy is also a parish of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh (the Parish of St Albert the Great) and all Catholic students and staff are automatically members of this parish.
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St Albert's Catholic Chaplaincy is part of the English Province of the Order of Preachers, a charity registered in England and Wales (231192) and in Scotland (SC039062).