EWTN Travel Program Features Catholic Church Art & Architecture

Now airing their first season through June 3rd, EWTN's new show The Faithful Traveler, hosted by Diana von Glahn, presents the history, architecture and religious significance of notable churches, shrines, and places of pilgrimage throughout the United States. "Discovering the treasures of the Church...one city at a time." For more information, please click here.

Message from the Executive Director

The Foundation for Sacred Arts is pleased to announce our first Seminarian Arts Formation Conference, to be held on The Feast of the Guardian Angels on Saturday, October 2, 2010. We trust that this conference will reinforce the "profound connection between beauty and the liturgy" and compel seminarians to be "attentive to every work of art placed at the service of the celebration" since "everything related to the Eucharist should be marked by beauty." (Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 41, 2007). We also expect that this vital arts formation will reach up to 175 seminarians from at least eight Catholic seminaries local to Washington, D.C.

According to Russell Shaw, respected Catholic author and journalist, and former communications director for the US Bishops, "...when many of these men are priests, they will be called upon to make...important decisions about the building, renovation, and decoration of churches. Beauty is not just an add-on in worship. Beauty has its source in God, it points to and leads to God, and the beauty of our places of worship is crucial in fostering worship itself. I offer thanks and congratulations to the Foundation for Sacred Arts for this important and creative initiative." More information can be found on our website.

May you have a Blessed Triduum and Easter.

Ann Marra
Executive Director

Featured Work: Crucifixion by David Clayton

David Clayton, Crucifixion, six feet tall, egg tempera on panel, 2010.

Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, NH has recently commissioned David Clayton, the College’s Artist-in-Residence, to complete a six foot painted crucifix for its chapel.

Mr. Clayton describes the piece: "It is low so that when the priest holds the host aloft, the figure of Christ is clearly visible within the angle of vision. We have Mass both ad orientem and versus populum, so the intention here is to make sure that however the Mass is said, the focus is not on the personality of the priest but on the person of Christ.

"The cross itself is based upon the early gothic Franciscan crosses. The style is similar to that iconographic, except that the face, in the Franciscan manner, reveals his suffering. The geometric designs in the background include an octagonal motif that represents the 'eighth day' of creation, that is, the age of the life, death and resurrection of Our Lord. There is a six-winged seraph at Our Lord's feet.

"The height of cross creates a vertical dimension in a small chapel by drawing the eye up to space above the sanctuary that was hardly noticed before because it was unused. Aside from seeking to steadily introduce more art, the next step is to raise money for a new altar and a gothic-style reredos that will go against the back wall and allow for the central placement of the tabernacle."

David Clayton

Original interview, New Liturgical Movement

Lessons in Iconography: The Pelican

In Christian art, the pelican represents Christ’s ultimate sacrifice on the Cross for our redemption. This traditional attribution stems from the belief that a female pelican will strike her breast with her beak, drawing blood to feed her young. Like the pelican, Christ shed His blood on the Cross for our redemption, and Christ offers Himself to us in the sacrifice of the Eucharist to nourish and strengthen us spiritually.

A verse from the Adoro Te Devote, a Eucharistic hymn penned by St. Thomas Aquinas, refers to Christ in the guise of this symbol:

Pelican of mercy, Jesus, Lord and God,

Cleanse me, wretched sinner, in Thy Precious Blood:

Blood where one drop for human-kind outpoured

Might from all transgression have the world restored.

As we draw near to the celebration of Christ’s death on the Cross on Good Friday, let us ask the “Pelican of Mercy” to nourish and strengthen us through His sacrifice.

Rachel Ross

Curator of Art

New Publication on Christian Art and Evangelization

Does the Church need artistic beauty in her liturgy? What occurs when pastors and catechists disregard the tradition of sacred art in their ministry? What role can Christian art play in recapturing the imagination of Christians and in redirecting our culture towards the pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty? These are some of the questions Dr. Jem Sullivan tackles in her work The Beauty of Faith: Using Christian Art to Spread the Good News, recently published by Our Sunday Visitor. Framing her discussion within the context of our society's sensory overload - in which mainstream "iconography" becomes more prevalent precisely as Christian images become scarce - she emphasizes the power of images to convey ideas and to shape culture. Dr. Sullivan calls for a recovery of art's traditional role in the life of the Church, arguing that it will enable us to encounter, teach, and live our faith in a more profound and engaged way. To purchase the book, please click here.

Way of Beauty Atelier Summer Programs

Thomas More College's Way of Beauty Atelier is offering a unique series of summer programs in Catholic art and inspiration that are taught by internationally renowned working Catholic artists. Artists and aspiring artists can choose from one or more of three programs in iconography, naturalistic drawing, and the principles of Catholic art.

For more information, please click here.

Message from the Executive Director

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has articulated that our modern age is "marked...by a weakening of hope...[by] increasing signs of resignation, aggression and despair." Yet by rendering an authentic beauty - one which brings us face to face with the Source of all beauty - artists can become "heralds and witnesses of hope for humanity" (Address to Artists, 2009). At The Foundation for Sacred Arts, our aim to is advance the Holy Father's ideals in a concrete way by supporting the production of inspiring new works of sacred art, architecture and music that exist as "an authentic expression of the human genius and a reflection of divine beauty." We are thus especially pleased that our mission has merited the esteem the Holy Father himself, who recently wrote to us imparting his Apostolic Blessing, expressing that he trusts that "[our] work will help, in the words of the late Pope John Paul II, 'to affirm that true beauty which, as a glimmer of the Spirit of God, will transfigure matter, opening the human heart to the sense of the eternal.'" As our Lord affirmed, "man does not live by bread alone" (Matthew 4:4). Please continue to pray that by providing opportunities for others to encounter Divine Beauty in the sacred arts, the Foundation will help feed the spiritual hunger of humanity.

Ann Marra
Executive Director

Cardinal Schönborn Greets Foundation Members

On Thursday, February 4th, 2010, members of The Foundation for Sacred Arts had the privilege of meeting and presenting a gift to a notable hero in the culture wars, His Most Illustrious and Reverend Eminence, Christoph Cardinal von Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna.

His Eminence, a Dominican Father and a modern-day "Thomas Aquinas," was the principal editor of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. A prolific author, his publications include God’s Human Face: The Christ Icon, which investigates the theological foundations of iconography. His Eminence was in Washington, DC to celebrate Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew and then to speak in his office as the Grand Chancellor of the International Theological Institute at a dinner hosted at the Army and Navy Club, a prestigious "members only" club located at Farragut Square. Many notable ITI graduates, scholars, staff and theologians attended this event.

We were most fortunate to meet with His Eminence twice that evening -- briefly at the Cathedral after Mass, and later to make this Rosary presentation to him at the reception prior to dinner. On both occasions, he received us with great enthusiasm, interest and warmth. It was quite an experience, facilitated by our friend and supporter, John Henry Crosby, Founder of the Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project, who is also an Advisory Board member to the Foundation.

Our gift to His Eminence was a traditional Dominican Rosary hand-crafted by Mary A.D. Petrino, a member of our Board of Directors. The Rosary, which includes the heavily-indulgenced Sterling silver "Pardon Crucifix" designed by Pope St. Pius X, features "Ave" beads of red flake jasper and snowflake obsidian beads, symbolizing his position as a prince of Holy Mother Church and as a member of the Order of Preachers. The first three "Ave" beads are rendered in lapis lazuli, bloodstone and red flake jasper, signifying the three theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity. The "Paters" are handmade Sterling beads, designed to resemble the bishop's mitre; and the Sterling "Scapular" center medal features a carved image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with an image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel embossed on the reverse. Finally, the box illustrates the two great apostles, Saints Peter and Paul, appropriate to the office of the Cardinal.

Top image, left to right: Ann Marra, Executive Director; His Eminence Cardinal Schönborn; Mary Petrino, Board of Directors; Rachel Ross, Curator of Art. Bottom left: Foundation Member Mary Petrino presents the hand-crafted Rosary to Cardinal Schönborn. Bottom right: The hand-crafted Rosary presented to His Eminence.

Featured Work: Chapel of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity at Thomas Aquinas College

This past spring Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles, dedicated the centerpiece of the campus of Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California. Designed by Duncan Stroik, a professor at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, the chapel draws its inspiration from the churches of Italian Renaissance architect Brunelleschi – designer of Florence's famous dome – from the Venetian churches of Palladio, and from the tradition of Spanish Mission churches of California. While drawing inspiration from a variety of sources, the chapel is a copy of no church, but a synthesis of all of them in a truly new work of art. The Chapel cost $23 million to construct and seats 375, but is large enough to hold the entire student body of 500 during important festivals in temporary seating. Twenty solid marble columns grace the nave and a bronze baldachino modeled on the centerpiece of St. Peter's Basilica surmounts the altar. To view more work by the architect, please click here.

Erik Bootsma
Curator of Architecture

Lessons in Iconography: The Palm Branch

We may be most familiar with the palm branch as a symbol of Christ's Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. During the Church's liturgical celebration on that day, the faithful bear palm branches to herald Christ's kingship, mirroring the crowds that acclaimed him as the King of Israel on the first Palm Sunday. In ancient Rome, the palm branch was used as a symbol of victory; the Christians appropriated this image to symbolize the martyr, whose death, paradoxically, is his triumph.

In this way, the martyr's palm may be linked to the branches of Palm Sunday. As the crowds laid the palms before Christ, so the martyr lays down his life as an offering to Christ the King, proclaiming His glory. It is worthy of noting that, in Christ's time, the palm branch represented the nation of Israel, God's chosen people.

The images above - Fracesco del Cossa's Saint Lucy and El Greco's Madonna and Child with Saint Martina and Saint Agnes, both at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC - show these female saints holding a palm branch as a sign of their martyrdom.

Rachel Ross

Curator of Art