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At the left he is vested as an Abbot and holds a book in his left hand and a crozier or pastoral staff in his right. He is standing on a pig, less clear than his own figure, but facing right at the bottom of the painting beneath his feet, its cloven hooves and snout showing fairly well. At the far left is a small figure who seems to be supplicating the saint with hands outstretched, but this particular detail has become very unclear now.

Outbreaks of the horrifying and almost always fatal disease, later attributed to fungus-tainted cereal grain, that came to be known as St. Antonys Fire were frequent and widespread during the Middle Ages. The Hospitallers of the Antonine Order specialised in its treatment, usually a matter of palliative nursing until the inevitable end. For this reason among others, St. Antony became a hugely popular saint, but although there are one or two other examples still in existence, depictions of him are rare in the English church now.

Another seldom-found saint, Dunstan, is also at Barton, and the more familiar St. George defeating the Dragon is newly here now. I will try to include some of the other paintings in the church in due course, although the condition of some of them is very poor.

Website for St Peters, Barton

© Anne Marshall 2000 & 2010 5/3/13