The Malinalco murals 4. St Augustine

This is the last of our posts on the Malinalco murals, more of an addendum really.
   As a major Augustinian priory it would be surprising if St Augustine, the founder of the Order, did not feature in the murals of the church and convento at Malinalco.  Although not prominently portrayed, he appears twice in the convento.

In the upper cloister, he is first seen kneeling arms crossed as a spectator in the Crucifixion scene. Voluminously robed in black, he wears his bishop's miter and clutches a crozier and staff. 

In the former prior's room, just beyond the upper cloister, we find a partial, retouched early mural of a bearded St. Augustine sheltering the members of his order, whose tonsured heads recede into the distance beneath his spreading cape. Again, he wears his bishop's miter but here holds a flaming torch.

text © 2018  Richard D. Perry.  images by the author and Robert Jackson