The original of this image of St. John Nepomucene was hand painted on a 42”x 72” buffalo hide by a Franciscan missionary in the 17th century in what is now New Mexico. Silkscreen artist Martha Ann Wallker created a print based on the original. My mother, Stella Marie Schmitt Ely (1912-1946) wrote a poem describing the print. The print is in a book Sacred Paintings on Skin published in 1944 by the Museum of New Mexico Press. Paintings were done with native vegetable dyes on animal hides were prepared as graphic teaching aids. The Friars could easily roll them and carry them on to the next stop on their missionary journeys.
St. John Nepomucene
In jaded courts of kings and emperors
Too oft is perfidy the rule.
To curry favor, man will sell his soul,
Betray his vows, and thus demean his God.
Bohemia, where Wenceslaus was king,
Had often seen this proved. The kin was proud,
And jealous of his power, mistrustful
Of his queen. He sought in eager hate to find
The proof of what his fevered mind had built,
Into an edifice of vast proportions.
Confessor to the queen, San Juan Nepomuceno
Was called to Wenceslaus and told to break
The holy silence which the penitent received
When to her God she bared her sins.
But John was true, and stood steadfast
‘Gainst desecration of his vows.
They tortured him with rack and fire - -
Such was the frantic furor of the king - -
To no avail. Nor for his constant virtue
Was John praised, but died a martyr’s death.
Kin Wenceslaus was foiled again,
For over San Juan’s floating corpse there glowed
A light so bright and pure it filled the sky.
The people, loyal, humble, full of faith,
Defied the king and claimed the saint for theirs.
The honored him - - and so his story lived.
Bohemia to Mexico - - his fame
Has spanned six hundred years and many miles,
And counsels us to hold in highest trust
The wise discretionary use of words,
The honor due a vow.
