Saint Bavo is received by Saints Amand and Floribert

Before he was a saint, Bavo was Count Allowin of Haspengouw, a nobleman and soldier who gave up arms and fortune to become a monk. Rubens followed the version of his life published in 1583 by the theologian Joannes Molanus, and this sketch, made in 1611 or 1612 for the high altar of Ghent's cathedral, shows its turning point. On the steps of a church, Bavo in armour and a red cloak bows before the bishop Amand, whose sermon on the emptiness of worldly goods had converted him, and the abbot Floribert. Behind them a cleric holds up the black Benedictine habit he will wear in place of his armour. Lower down, a man hands out the saint's money to a crowd of the poor. Two richly dressed courtiers seem to watch this with disgust, and one of them prods the beggars with his staff.