Polycrystalline Bi36Fe2O57 (BFO) ceramic was prepared by an economical chemical route. The X-ray powder diffraction analysis shows the formation of single-phase BFO ceramic. Nanosized formation of BFO ceramic particles was characterized by XRD as well as TEM and had particle size 76 ± 10 nm range. The sillenite type Bi36Fe2O57 shows better photocatalytic activity for the methylene blue (MB) dye degradation under visible light exposure than the perovskite-based BiFeO3 due to the low band gap(1.8eV) of the former. The photocatalytic mechanism of MB degradation over Bi36Fe2O57 ceramic can be explained by the Langmuir-Hinshelwood model which reflects the adsorption-controlled photocatalytic process.