not being himself a terribly imaginative man , my father followed what he had seen in the churches of florence in his design and instructed these men to tell the tales of john the baptist , patron saint of the city and cousin of our lord , and so it was that during the last years of my life on earth , our chapel was enfolded with representations of st. elizabeth , st. john , st. anne , the blessed mother , zachary and angels galore , all dressed - as was the way of the time - in their florentine finest .