#intercessions gallery

[scotianostra]

On February 1st 1329, Sir James Douglas bestowed land and money to Newbattle Abbey before he left for with The Bruce’s heart for the Holy Land.

The Good Sir must have known it was a dangerous journey he was going to undertake, he gave the land so that each year a mass would be sung for St Bride and 13 poor people would be fed so the saint would intercede with God for his immortal soul.

In the 1849 book Registrum S. Marie de Neubotle the story is told as such:

On St. Bride’s day, or the 1st of February, in the end of the year 1329, at the park of Douglas, the “good Sir James of Douglas,” being then about to depart for the Holy Land with the heart of his royal master, bestowed on the monastery of Newbattle his half of the land of Kilmad, the other half of which it already possessed by gift of Roger de Quinci; while the monks, on their part, became bound to sing a mass at St. Bridget’s altar within their abbey church on the feast of St. Bridget, yearly for evermore, and to feed thirteen poor folk, that the saint might make special intercession with God for the weal of the good knight.

If you are wondering why it says “in the end of the year 1329” it is because we were still using the Julian calendar back then, the New Year began on March 25th.

Of course most of you will know that Douglas only made it to Spain, landing at Santander where a stone, now lost, recalled the hero ‘El Duglas’. Douglas and the Scots joined King Alfonso XI of Castile in his war against the Sultan of Granada, Muhammed IV.

In Castile an English knight marvelled at Douglas’s unscarred face - he expected the famed warrior to be covered in battle scars, as he himself was. Douglas replied, ‘God be praised, I always had my hands to defend my head.’

On August 30th 1330 Douglas alongside several Scots, including Simon Lockhart of Lee, William Keith, Robert Logan of Restalrig and Walter Logan, William Borthwick, Kenneth Moir, William St Clair of Rosslyn and John St Clair, charged into battle against The Moors at The Battle of Teba, Douglas and the Scots knights died at Teba.

James’s body was found by the silver casket. Muhammed IV had the bodies of the Scots sent with guard of honour to King Alfonso. The surviving Scots, Sir William Keith and Sir Simon Lockhart, cut out their friends’ hearts and boiled their bodies down in a cauldron. They took the knights’ bones and hearts back to Scotland. You may have seen artwork of James throwing the heart ahead of him, this is just artistic licence, he would not be expecting to die, and the casket would most definitely have remained around his neck, as seen in the statue in the second pic, which is on The National Portrait gallery wall in Edinburgh.

It was after Teba that the Douglas Arms were changed, the heart being added to show his devotion to The Bruce.

[kristabella]

Crown of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, known as the Crown of the Andes

Colombian; PopayánCa. 1660 (diadem) and ca. 1770 (arches)

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 757

Spaniards arriving in sixteenth-century South America encountered a rich and complex indigenous tradition of gold working that had developed over the course of millennia. Many, if not most, Precolumbian works in gold were melted down in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, their precious metal repurposed for new religious and secular leaders both in Spain and the Americas. This crown was made to adorn a sacred image of the Virgin Mary venerated in the cathedral of Popayán (Colombia). A symbol of the Virgin’s divine queenship, the crown is encircled by golden vinework set with emerald clusters in the shape of flowers, a reference to her purity. The diadem is topped by imperial arches and a cross-bearing orb that symbolizes Christ’s dominion over the world. Although the practice was controversial, it was common to bestow lavish gifts, including jewels and sumptuous garments, on sculptures of the Virgin Mary. To gain salvation, the faithful sought her intercession and worked to honor her and increase the splendor of her worship. At the same time, the crown represents one of the most distinctive artistic achievements of a region whose wealth derived from the mining of gold and emeralds.

Medium: Gold, repoussé and chased; emeralds

Dimensions: 13 1/2 in. (34.3 cm) Body diameter: 13 1/4 in. (33.7 cm)

Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, Acquisitions Fund and Mary Trumbull Adams Fund, 2015

Material metmuseum.org

[incasecurate]

InCase.6 Shield - Jessica Harby

[gallerybyzantium]

We're continuing our Sacred Spaces blog series with a trip to Vladimir (Russia) and the beautiful Church of the Intercession on the Nerl.

[alexandersmallart]

InCase.1 Radiant Opacity including Ikran Abdille | Jonathan Alibone | Sayed Sattar Hasan | Rachael House | Danielle Smith curated by Alexander Small 

[brooklynmuseum]

For the Law of Antiquities series, created for their Brooklyn Museum UOVO Prize exhibition, Baseera Khan collaborated with Brooklyn Museum curators and conservators to stage performed intercessions with objects from the Arts of the Islamic World collection. 

Here, Khan holds aloft an enlarged version of an old black-and-white museum cataloguing image of a “Jingle Johnny” processional stand from the eighteenth century. Dating to the Ottoman era, the stand once heralded a procession with its tinkling bells, now silent in the controlled space of museum storage. Here, Khan redirects that silence by wielding the image like a protest sign. See it on view in Baseera Khan: I Am an Archive through July 10, 2022. 

Baseera Khan (born Denton, Texas, 1980). Jingle Johnny Processional Stand Pink from Law of Antiquities, 2021. Archival inkjet print, artist’s custom frame, 60 × 40 in. (152.4 × 101.6 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Simone Subal Gallery, New York. © Baseera Khan

[traumacatholic]

Do you know if there are patron saints for the following:

•Those struggling with addiction to masturbation and/or erotica

•Prople who experience same sex attractions

•People persecuted by their work

•Case managers/unlicensed or non-clinical healthcare workers

•Left-handed people

•Lukewarm Catholics

Saint Mary of Egypt: Chastity (warfare against the flesh; deliverance from carnal passions)

Saint Augustine: Not a specific patronage per say but from Confessions he talked about his own struggle with lust. "“…the mists of passion steamed up out of the puddly concupiscence of the flesh, and the hot imagination of puberty, so clouded over and obscured my heart that I was unable to distinguish the pure light of true love from the murk of lust. Both boiled confusedly within me, and dragged my unstable youth down over the cliffs of unchaste desires and plunged me into a gulf of infamy.”"

St John the Much-Suffering/ St John the Long-Suffering: I can't find much about him, but some sites quote his struggle with carnal passions:

"‘When I came to the Holy Cave Monastery and began to struggle, I suffered much, overcome by lust for fornication; and I do not know what I did not endure for the sake of my salvation. I often ate nothing for two or three days or, sometimes, for a whole week. I did not quench my thirst but kept vigil for the entire night. I continued restless for three long years. Then, I went into a cave, where our holy father Anthony reposes, and spent a night and a day in prayer near the grave. At length, I heard the saint’s voice ‘John, John! You must shut yourself up in the cave so that you can occupy yourself with warfare through isolation and silence, and the Lord will help you by prayers of His saints.’ After that, I entered into reclusion in this narrow and sorrowful place and remained here for thirty years. Only recently, I did acquire peace."

For further reading; https://catholicinrecovery.com/seven-patron-saints-to-help-you-overcome-porn-and-sexual-addiction/

--

As for Saints of Same Sex Attraction, this can be considered in two ways. Those who struggled with SSA and those who's stories and experiences resonate with people who experience SSA. I know a lot of LGBT Catholics who have strong connections to Saints such as Saint Sebastian or Saint Joan of Arc. This article talks about these two connotations with Saints across denominations (ergo is from a more LGBT perspective than a Catholic one): https://www.advocate.com/religion/2017/6/02/30-lgbt-saints#media-gallery-media-1

&

For some people, any Saint that is patronage for chastity could be a likely candidate for how they relate to the Saints as someone who's SSA: (e.g. see above) and also https://catholicsaintmedals.com/patronage/patron-of-chastity/

--

There are Patron Saints of particular professions including those suffering from persecution. (I'm going to combine this one with the healthcare one)

Further reading:

https://www.kalibrr.com/advice/2016/03/5-patron-saints-of-work-and-modern-situations

https://medium.com/@CatholicTV/struggling-at-work-pray-for-the-intercession-of-these-3-saints-c567a9a70071

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_patron_saints_by_occupation_and_activity

https://www.healthcareministry.org/the-saints-of-health-care/

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/the-saints-linked-with-diseases-cures-and-doctors-1.4197437

https://catholicmedicalassociation.org.uk/resources/saints-in-healthcare/

If there's a particular job in mind, you could just ask for the intercession of those who are Patrons of that role. Saints don't need to be especially linked to a job or an experience in order to provide intercessory prayers. Indeed, you can ask any Saint for help and they will provide it.

--

Now, admittedly you almost had me on this one and I was unfortunately going to have to rule out that left handed people could enter the Kingdom of God. BUT,

A Miracle Book of Saint Þorlákr before 1224 (Elliot and Whaley)

In Papisfjordr in the East-fjords there was a poor woman whose fingers were disabled: they were clenched into the palm of her right hand. She had two young children to look after. They were playing outside under the wall of the house, when a great driftwood beam fell off the wall onto the children and they were both killed. And when the children were found lifeless, she came under suspicion that something of her causing must have happened. But she denied this and wept so that she was almost flooded with tears, and she put forward all the pleas of innocence which Abbot Jόn (Jόn Ljόtsson, Abbot of Ver, 1197-1224) thought were appropriate to her case. And when Abbot Jόn came into the district, she took the course of swearing an oath, the most rigorous which could be dictated to her (a Fifth [High] Court Oath), and she laid her hand on the casket which contained the hair of the blessed Bishop Þorlákr. And when the oath was complete, she lifted her hand, and the fingers which had been clenched were straight. And all who were present praised almighy God and the blessed bishop Þorlákr.

This story of him helping a left handed woman accused of witchcraft/murder should hopefully resonate with the left handed amongst us :^)

--

A lot of Saints actually do openly talk about feeling the silence of God or struggling in their faith:

https://owlcation.com/humanities/Patron-Saints-for-the-Doubtful

https://beyondthesestonewalls.com/blog/gordon-macrae/patron-saints-struggling-souls

https://www.shared.com/patron-saints-to-pray-tough/

https://www.catholiccompany.com/magazine/four-patron-saints-of-impossible-causes-5915

[artworks4]

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒄𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑯𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒂 𝑺𝒐𝒑𝒉𝒊𝒂, 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝑶𝒏𝒆.

The Hagia Sophia ~Holy Wisdom (of God) ~ is a religious building that has crowned the skyline of Istanbul - Turkey for almost 1,500 years. It is famous for its rich history and is considered an architectural masterpiece of architecture from the Eastern Roman Empire, known as Byzantine.

The Hagia Sophia was built during the 6th century. It is one of the few buildings that have served three different religions during its existence. It has been an Orthodox Christian church, a Catholic cathedral, and a mosque. Currently, it functions as a museum…

On 10 July 2020, the decision of the Turkish Council of Ministers to transform the Hagia Sophia into a museum was cancelled by the Council of State. And, despite secular and global criticism, Erdoğan signed a decree annulling the Hagia Sophia's museum status, reverting it to a mosque…

Hagia Sophia is an Unesco World Heritage site.

~𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒄𝒔 ~

Hagia Sophia Imperial Gate mosaic

The mosaic above the Imperial Door was created during the 10th century, and it portraits the Emperor and several religious figures over a golden background. It shows Emperor Leo VI with a halo around his head kneeling next to Christ, who is sitting on a throne, blessing with his right hand. The text on the left hand of Christ reads in Greek ''Peace be with you. I am the light of the world'' (John 14:27; 8:12). There are two medallions, one on each side, showing the Virgin Mary and the Archangel Gabriel.

The Empress Zoe mosaics (11th-century) in Hagia Sophia.

The Empress Zoe mosaic on the eastern wall of the southern gallery date from the 11th century. Christ Pantocrator, clad in the dark blue robe (as is the custom in Byzantine art), is seated in the middle against a golden background, giving His blessing with the right hand and holding the Bible in His left hand. On either side of His head are the nomina sacra IC and XC, meaning Iēsous Christos. He is flanked by Constantine IX Monomachus and Empress Zoe, both in ceremonial costumes. He is offering a purse, as a symbol of donation, he made to the church, while she is holding a scroll, symbol of the donations she made. The inscription over the head of the emperor says: "Constantine, pious emperor in Christ the God, king of the Romans, Monomachus". The inscription over the head of the empress reads as follows: "Zoë, the very pious Augusta". The previous heads have been scraped off and replaced by the three present ones. Perhaps the earlier mosaic showed her first husband Romanus III Argyrus or her second husband Michael IV. Another theory is that this mosaic was made for an earlier emperor and empress, with their heads changed into the present ones.

The Virgin and Child (Theotokos) mosaic, in the apse of Hagia Sophia.

The famous Virgin and Child mosaic in the apse was inaugurated in 867, the first to be installed after a prolonged period of iconoclasm (726-843) in the Eastern Church.

Southwestern entrance mosaic

The southwestern entrance mosaic, situated in the tympanum of the southwestern entrance, dates from the reign of Basil II. It was rediscovered during the restorations of 1849 by the Fossatis. The Virgin sits on a throne without a back, her feet resting on a pedestal, embellished with precious stones. The Christ Child sits on her lap, giving his blessing and holding a scroll in his left hand. On her left side stands emperor Constantine in ceremonial attire, presenting a model of the city to Mary. The inscription next to him says: "Great emperor Constantine of the Saints". On her right side stands emperor Justinian I, offering a model of the Hagia Sophia. The medallions on both sides of the Virgin's head carry the nomina sacra MP and ΘΥ, abbreviations of "Mētēr" and "Theou", meaning "Mother of God".  

Comnenus mosaics, Hagia Sophia.

The Comnenus mosaic, also located on the eastern wall of the southern gallery, dates from 1122.

On the right side of Virgin Mary stands emperor John II Comnenus, represented in a garb embellished with precious stones. He holds a purse, symbol of an imperial donation to the church. Empress Irene stands on the left side of the Virgin, wearing ceremonial garments and offering a document. Their eldest son Alexius Comnenus is represented on an adjacent pilaster. He is shown as a beardless youth, probably representing his appearance at his coronation aged seventeen. In this panel, one can already see a difference with the Empress Zoe mosaic that is one century older. There is a more realistic expression in the portraits instead of an idealized representation. The Empress, Saint Irene (born Piroska), daughter of Ladislaus I of Hungary is shown with plaited blond hair, rosy cheeks, and grey eyes, revealing her Hungarian descent. The emperor is depicted in a dignified manner.

Portrait of Saint John Chrysostom of Antioch (Hagios Ioannis Chrysostomos).

Deësis mosaic (Judgment day)

The Deësis mosaic (Δέησ��ς, "Entreaty") probably dates from 1261. It was commissioned to mark the end of 57 years of Roman Catholic use and the return to the Eastern Orthodox faith. It is the third panel situated in the imperial enclosure of the upper galleries. It is widely considered the finest in Hagia Sophia, because of the softness of the features, the human expressions and the tones of the mosaic. The style is close to that of the Italian painters of the late 13th or early 14th century, such as Duccio. In this panel the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist (Ioannes Prodromos), both shown in three-quarters profile, are imploring the intercession of Christ Pantocrator for humanity on Judgment Day. The bottom part of this mosaic is badly deteriorated. This mosaic is considered as the beginning of a renaissance in Byzantine pictorial art.

[russianicons]

Icon of the Synaxis of the Most Holy Theotokos from the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. It was painted in the late 14th – early 15th century. This icon is the earliest surviving icon of this type in Russia. It comes from the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God in Pskov, where it was preserved after being transported from the Church of Barbara, a wooden church of the former women’s monastery that burned down in 1561.

[tuullaofchange]

The Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin on the Nerl River|Храм Покрова Пресвятой Богородицы на Нерли

EN|RU

The Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin on the Nerl River was erected in the mouth of the river Nerl at the Vladimir and Suzdal principality  water gates in the distance of  Prince Andrew  Yurievich's residence in Bogoliubov(the place that is loved by God) in 1165. 

The harmonious  refined shrine  cubage   raises  over flood plains through  mounding that was claded with limestone slabs, and seems as if it hovers above crystal clear water surface. The shrine aggregates the grace of the blooming land without opposition to the surounding area as the  previous period  structures. 

The vertical of the church is emphasised with  multiple pilaster-strips, oblong window openings and  a blind arcade that is skirting the entire perimeter. Declaiming ascension was related to the concept of the omniponent divine powers' patronage to a prince, who was haloed with the sacred mission, and his lands. 

The composition centricity of the trinaved, triapsed church with  one dome is based on a zakomar covering wave,  a positioning in the centric curtain walls, except  the east one, perspective portals covered with archivolt chiselled ribbons which stand in contrast to  wall surface. 

Reliefs in shapes of birds of prey, lions, gryphons - guardians, alluded  in deisis to Biblical king David , are located in the zakomars' semicircles.  Periphrastic apotheosis of David likens him to Prince Andrew Bogolyubsky. 

The motive of engaged columns with leaf capitals, initially expressed  with strong figural chords on the pilaster-strips, continued on the archivolt layers and terminated as robust small columns of the sanctuary screen, finally transforms the wall into the resemblance of a veil, decorated with a purl and golden plaque-chevrons. 

The high and serene shrine interior is not gauged for a major performance, it is a place for intimate prayers of a prince dwelled on the  elevated, close to the dome open galleries.  It is a reminiscent of the ideal iconic space, enveloped by golden light. 

The shift  to comprehension of religious buildings on the more poetic level from exclusively austere function motivates to enhance the effect of architecture pieces, use the visual language for the prince's political programme consolidation.  Integrity and spirituality of the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl River had an impact on architects's dictinctive technics. 

RU

Церковь Покрова на Нерли была возведена  в 1165 году в устье р. Нерль, у «водных ворот» Владимирской земли, в отдалении от резиденции в Боголюбове князя Андрея Юрьевича. Стройный изящный объем храма поднят над  заливными лугами путем устройства искусственной насыпи, облицованной известняковыми плитами, и , как будто парит над кристально чистой гладью воды. Храм сосредотачивает в себе благодать цветущей земли,  не противостоя окружающему пространству, как постройки предыдущего периода.  Вертикаль церкви подчеркнута членениями многообломных лопаток, вытянутыми оконными проемами, аркатурно-колончатым поясом, огибающим весь периметр. Декламированное вознесение связывалось с идеей покровительства всемогущих божественных сил князю, окруженному ореолом священной миссии, и его землям. Центричность композиции трехнефной, трехапсидной, одноглавой постройки основана на  волне позакомарного покрытия, размещении в центральных пряслах, кроме восточного, перспективных порталов с ажурными лентами архивольтов, которые контрастирую�� с гладью стен. В полукружиях закомар располагаются рельефы в форме хищных птиц, львов, грифонов - охранителей, обращенных в сторону библейского царя- объединителя Давида. Иносказательный апофеоз Давида уподобляет его   самому  князю Андрею Боголюбскому. Мотив полуколонн с лиственными капителями, впервые звучащий сильными пластическими аккордами на лопатках, продолжающийся в слоях архивольтов и завершающийся полнокровными колонками алтарной преграды, окончательно  преображает стену  в подобие завесы, украшенной бахромой и золотыми дробницами-нашивками. Светлый и высокий интерьер храма не рассчитан на действо с большим числом участников, это место, предназначенное для личной молитвы князя, пребывавшего на высоко поднятых, приближенных к куполу хорах. Оно походит на идеальное иконное пространство, объятое сиянием золота. Переход к осмыслению на более поэтическом уровне культовых сооружений от сугубо строгой функциональности мотивирован усилить воздействие архитектурных произведений, использовать изобразительный язык для выражения политической программы князя, ее консолидации.  Целостность и одухотворенность церкви Покрова на Нерли повлияли на особенности художественного инструментария мастеров.

[scotianostra]

On February 1st 1329, Sir James Douglas bestowed land and money to Newbattle Abbey before he left for with The Bruce’s heart for the Holy Land.

The Good Sir must have known it was a dangerous journey he was going to undertake, he gave the land so that each year a mass would be sung for St Bride and 13 poor people would be fed so the saint would intercede with God for his immortal soul.

In the 1849 book Registrum S. Marie de Neubotle the story is told as such: On St. Bride’s day, or the 1st of February, in the end of the year 1329, at the park of Douglas, the “good Sir James of Douglas,” being then about to depart for the Holy Land with the heart of his royal master, bestowed on the monastery of Newbattle his half of the land of Kilmad, the other half of which it already possessed by gift of Roger de Quinci; while the monks, on their part, became bound to sing a mass at St. Bridget’s altar within their abbey church on the feast of St. Bridget, yearly for evermore, and to feed thirteen poor folk, that the saint might make special intercession with God for the weal of the good knight.

If you are wondering why it says “in the end of the year 1329” it is because we were still using the Julian calendar back then, the New Year began on March 25th.

The pic shows a statue of Sir James Douglas on The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, not the chain and casket around his neck, which contained the heart of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots. Of course most of you will know that Douglas only made it to Spain, landing at Santander where a stone, now lost, recalled the hero ‘El Duglas’. Douglas and the Scots joined King Alfonso XI of Castile in his war against the Sultan of Granada, Muhammed IV.

In Castile an English knight marvelled at Douglas’s unscarred face - he expected the famed warrior to be covered in battle scars, as he himself was. Douglas replied, ‘God be praised, I always had my hands to defend my head.’ On August 30th 1330 Douglas alongside several Scots, including Simon Lockhart of Lee, William Keith, Robert Logan of Restalrig and Walter Logan, William Borthwick, Kenneth Moir, William St Clair of Rosslyn and John St Clair, charged into battle against The Moors at The Battle of Teba, Douglas and the Scots knights died at Teba.

James’s body was found by the silver casket. Muhammed IV had the bodies of the Scots sent with guard of honour to King Alfonso. The surviving Scots, Sir William Keith and Sir Simon Lockhart, cut out their friends’ hearts and boiled their bodies down in a cauldron. They took the knights’ bones and hearts back to Scotland.

The illustrations are from the hand of Andrew Spratt of how the Abbey may have looked back then, the interior pic is probably the oldest surviving  part of the building, down in the vaults, a place I must get round to visiting, maybe this year.

[catholicartistsnyc]

Meet Visual Artist Holle Wade

HOLLE WADE is an oil painter and film photographer who dapples in digital collage. | website | instagram @hollecreates

CATHOLIC ARTIST CONNECTION: Do you call yourself a Catholic artist? 

HOLLE: I call myself a Catholic who has been called to be an artist. God has called me to a vocation as an artist. The deeper I got into my faith, the deeper I felt God calling me to be an artist. I rejected that for a while because the art world is so separate from God and true beauty that I couldn't possibly be called to that. God is revealing that is exactly why he has called me to be an artist to make space for his goodness and beauty in spaces that have rejected him for so long.

Where have you found support in the Church for your vocation as an artist?

I just graduated college four months ago, so I am still searching where to plant myself. I'm new on this journey and I have found support online through Instagram. Combining my faith and work has been a new development in my own life and spirituality. I'm still searching for a good community. I would love to meet other Catholic film photographers. 

Where have you found support among your fellow artists for your Catholic faith?

From my recent experience a lot of artists have focused more on the formal aspect of my work instead of engaging the conceptual aspects of my work. In terms of using art as an exploration of faith and even as a time of veneration and worship, I have not felt encouraged. I'm a recent graduate and my professors never really engaged with my work beyond the formal elements and often encouraged me to be more personal in my work, but I don't know what’s more personal than putting the fruit of prayer, and devotion to God on display.

How can the Church be more welcoming to artists?

The Church is full of beauty made by artists, and God himself is the true origin of beauty. We want our world to be more Christlike and I think that starts with art and artists. To really change hearts and begin the conversation of Evangelization, I think it starts with art. The world is crying out for more beauty and I think the Church should do more to encourage the creation of artwork and encourage beauty. The art world has rejected God, but just a few hundred years ago, the Church was the main patron of the arts, and I think the Church needs to take that place again. The Church needs to open up in what can be deemed as acceptable artwork for devotion. I would to see more Artist Residencies sponsored by the Church.

How can the artistic world be more welcoming to artists of faith?

The art world has done so much to remove God and true beauty. I want to see more spaces open up for all art. The art world claims to be accepting of all people but exclude Christians, and I want more acceptance of Christians in the art world. We have been placed aside because we are Christian and our work is only for other Christians but that just isn't the case. Artists make work to express our emotions, but I just happen to use my art to express my faith. My work comes from the Holy Spirit working through me and I use my skills I learned in school to help me worship better. I went to school to be an artist, I was trained just like you and I have earned my place in the gallery and museum.

Where do you regularly find spiritual fulfillment?

I regularly find spiritual fulfillment in nature and adoration. I have been reflecting on 1 Kings 19:12-13, how God came to Elijah in the whispering wind. I encounter God in nature and feel his love and presence strongly. Sitting with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament has been so fruitful for me. As I mentioned earlier, I am between places since just graduating and COVID, I don't have a home parish or parishes I attend on the regular. 

Where do you regularly find artistic fulfillment?

I feel artistic fulfillment in Mass, adoration and prayer. Those are the places where I am most open to the Holy Spirit (apart from working in the studio) and God often gives me an image and of course that original image grows and changes as the Holy Spirit guides me but that is where I get the most artistic fulfillment. I love wondering around museums and seeing art and seeing how it is displayed, that always gives me ideas and things I want to work on. As a photographer, I am out in nature and taking in God's creation so I am always chasing the light and letting the Holy Spirit reveal God's light to me while I am photographing.

What is your daily spiritual practice?

My daily spiritual practice is diving into the Gospel of the day and letting it wash over me. I read the Gospel in the morning and journal about it. At least once a week I stream Adoration and sing worship songs and pray. I spend a few hours in the evening just sitting outside with God and just listening to the sounds around me, sometimes I will journal and listen to worship music. With COVID my daily spiritual practice has changed but I would usually attend daily Mass.  

What is your daily artistic practice?

My daily practice has changed slightly with COVID and graduating, but I usually always carry a film camera with me to catch little moments. The Holy Spirit is always tapping on my shoulder to take pictures of something. I rely on the Holy Spirit when I am working on any kind of art. My painting sessions start with inviting the Holy Spirit to work through me and guide my hands and whenever I feel imposter syndrome wanting to creep its head in the studio, I ask for Mother Mary's intercession. When making compositions there is a peace that washes over me and I know that is what I want to make. Everything starts with the Holy Spirit and Mother Mary's guidance.

What are your top 3 pieces of advice for Catholic artists post-graduation?

Considering I only graduated in May and I'm applying for MFA programs now, my advice would be rest, make time to combine art and prayer, and take full advantage of Visio Divina. Resting and really evaluating your heart and the work you are making, professors have had an effect on your work and may have changed or pressured you into making work you're not proud of - reject that and truly take time to flesh out what YOU want to make. I have been working for months to add prayer to my studio time and I have to say that it will take a lot of pressure away from making. The Holy Spirit will guide you and working will feel effortless. Visio Divina is praying with sacred images and as artists this practice can really align our hearts and our motivations as artists. Maybe even do this in your studio space.

[incasecurate]

Petr Strouhal

[kislak-center]

[Ed. note: we are very grateful to Dr. Patricia Stoop, visiting Brueghel Chair at the University of Pennsylvania / Universiteit Antwerpen for contributing this post.]

At the beginning of this year, the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts of the University of Pennsylvania purchased a unique and fascinating woodblock (c. 12.5 × 9.5 inches). Apart from the fact that for mysterious reasons over the course of time, a strip of about half an inch was cut off from the left end of the block—this was already the case when it belonged to a private owner in Eindhoven (Noord-Brabant, the Netherlands) in the 1950s—the woodblock is in excellent condition.

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Woodblock (UPenn Object Coll. Box 27)

Image from M. de Meyer, “Een oude bedevaartprent van Scherpenheuvel” in Volkskunde 13 nr. 3, 1954, p144

The devotional print is related to Scherpenheuvel (literally ‘Sharp Hill’, most often called ‘Montaigu’ after the French), which since the beginning of the seventeenth century was the main pilgrimage center in the Habsburg Low Countries. Its cult goes back to at least the beginning of the fourteenth century. In his continuation of the Spiegel Historiael the Brabantine priest and author Lodewijk van Velthem (c. 1260/75–after 1317) mentions a holy oak, which had the form of a cross and stood on the hilltop between the towns of Diest and Zichem, where he was ordained as a priest. The tree was worshipped because of the healing powers ascribed to it:

Van ere eyken die men anebede. LVII.

In desen tiden was ganginge mede Tuscen Zichgem ende Diest der stede Rechte bi na te middewarde. Daer dede menich sine bedevarde Tot ere eyken, dat si u cont, Die alse .i. cruse gewassen stont Met .ii. rayen gaende uut. Daer menich quam overluut, Die daer ane hinc scerpe ende staf Ende seide dat hi genesen waer daer af. Som [s]liepense onder den boem. Dus quam hem voren in haren droem Datsi vanden boem genasen. Aldus so quamen daer die dwasen, Ende die waren meest siec vanden rede, Ende vele verlorne daer optie stede. Dit duerde wel .i. half jaer, Sodat menige scerpe hinc daer Ende menich staf anden boem.

On an oak that was worshipped. Chapter 57.

In these days pilgrimage took place to a place almost in the middle between Zichem and Diest. Many went on pilgrimage there to an oak, that as you should know was grown in the form of a cross with two diverging branches. Apparently many put their pilgrim bag and their cane on the tree and said that they were cured thereof. Some slept underneath the tree. They believed that in their dreams they were healed by the tree. Thus the fools came there, mostly sick of mind, and lost many belongings in that place. This took place definitely for half a year so that many pilgrim bags and many canes hung there on the tree.

(Book 4, Chapter 57, ll. 4256–74)

Not too long after Velthem’s disapproving observation, a small statue of the Virgin Mary was placed in the cross-shaped tree. According to the legend, a shepherd had noticed around 1415 that the statue had fallen down. When he lifted it up in order to take it home, he was unable to move. Only when his master, who was worried because the shepherd had not returned home after work, put the statue of the Virgin back into the tree, was the servant able to move again. In this way the Virgin had shown the spiritual importance of the place. In the woodblock the shepherd is depicted in the lower left corner: he is identified by the French word berger, which indicates that the prints to be produced from this block were intended for a French-speaking audience.

After the miracle with the shepherd, the site was frequented by inhabitants of the surrounding villages whenever they were sick or a member of their family suffered from illness or pain. As suggested in the short passage from the text by Velthem, the pilgrims hung their support aids on the tree when they did not need them any longer: in October 1603 the tree counted no less than 135 canes. But there was also a lively trade in ex-votos: pilgrims could buy representations in gold, silver or tin of the body parts that were cured or needed healing (in the last case it was believed that the representation of the ill limb would take over the disease). These votive offerings were left hanging on the holy tree, as can be seen in the image above the radiant aureole in which the Virgin is depicted.

In the 1580s Scherpenheuvel found itself in the midst of the battlefields of the Dutch Revolt (1568–1648). While occupied by Protestant forces of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands between 1580 and 1583, the statue of the Virgin fell victim to an act of iconoclasm and was removed. After the town was retaken by the Spanish army, the cult was restored in 1587 by the parishioners of Zichem. (This town is represented in the woodblock both by the striped coat of arms at the left end of the woodblock and the stag with the crucifix at the right end of the block, which refers to St Eustachius, the town’s patron saint). By that time the site also had a strong appeal to Spanish soldiers who were wounded or infected by diseases. Via them, stories of miraculous healings spread all the way to France and the north of Spain. One of the people who benefited from these miraculous healings is represented centrally in the lower edge of the woodblock. Hans Clements—or Jean Clement as he is called on the woodblock (both names are derived from the Latin name Johannes)—, citizen of Lucerne in Switzerland, was born crippled. He traveled throughout the Netherlands on this knees, begging, until he arrived in Scherpenheuvel where the Virgin Mary finally answered his prayers and cured his disability.

The story about Hans (or Jean) Clements is one of the most famous miracles that happened in Scherpenheuvel in 1603 and 1604. It is extensively described by Philips Numan (c. 1550–1627), humanist writer and town secretary of Brussels, in his collection of miracles ascribed to Our Lady of Scherpenheuvel: Historie van de mirakelen die onlancx in grooten ghetale ghebeurt zijn door die intercessie ende voer bidden van die H. Maget Maria op een plaetse genoemt Scherpen heuvel by die Stadt van Sichen in Brabant [History of the miracles that happened recently in large numbers by the intercession and mediation of the Holy Virgin Mary in a place named Scherpenheuvel near the city of Zichem in Brabant]. Numan collected the miracles by order of the archbishop of Mechelen, Mathias Hovius (1542–1620). The first edition was printed in Louvain by Rutger Velpius in 1604. The image below is taken from the third edition printed by the same printer in 1606. Besides the publication in Dutch, Numan wrote a French version for the local nobility and a Spanish one intended for the court. Not much later an English translation was printed (1606). A Latin version was published by the famous humanist Justus Lipsius (1605).

The third edition of the Historie van de mirakelen (Brussels: Rutgeert Velpius, 1606). Copperplate engraving. Copy of the Heritage Library of the Ruusbroec Institute, Antwerpen, RG 3091 I 13. In the middle Our Lady of Scherpenheuvel is depicted in the same radiant aureole as can be found on the woodblock. She is accompanied by Hans Clemens to her right and Catherine du Bus, who is exclaiming the message of the devil.

The second great miracle is depicted in the lower left corner of the woodblock: there we see a woman on her knees, her arms spread while she expresses the message of the devil. The woman is identified as Catherine du Bus, a woman from Lille, France, who was able to speak Hebrew and Greek, although she never studied those languages, a clear sign that she was possessed by the devil. While being exorcized, she made predictions about the siege of the city of Ostend, which at the time was occupied by the Dutch rebels. During the process, which initially failed a number of times, the devil—in both the woodblock and the copperplate engraving he is pictured in a speech balloon—via Catherine’s mouth shouted to eyewitnesses that they were wrong in believing that the Spaniards would be able to win the siege. After eating a fragment of the oak tree of Scherpenheuvel, however, the devil was forced out, and on 22 September 1604 the Royal Spanish troops of Archduke Albert of Austria (1559–1621) took over Ostend, all thanks to the intervention of the Virgin of Scherpenheuvel.

Miracles like these established the fame of Scherpenheuvel as a pilgrimage site on a greater level than a regional one. In 1603, after they had heard that the Virgin had wept blood, the Archduke and his wife Isabella (1566–1633), who are depicted in the lower right corner of the woodblock (which is quite exceptional in devotional prints from Scherpenheuvel), visited the place for the first time and took it under their protection. In order to spread the devotion, books such as Numan’s and other devotional representations were mass produced. In the meantime a small wooden chapel was built for the statue of the Virgin in front of the oak in 1602. As we see in Velthem’s text, the worshipping of a tree was not much appreciated by the Catholic priests. Only two years later this wooden chapel was replaced by a larger, stone version. Likely it is this chapel that is depicted on the woodcut. In 1607 Albrecht and Isabella, out of gratitude for the expulsion of the Calvinists from the Southern Low Countries, decided that Scherpenheuvel had to be transformed into a fully-fledged pilgrimage site. In order to stimulate this they commissioned the building of a new basilica as a symbol of the Counter Reformation. The foundation stone of this new church was laid by them on 2 July 1606, the Feast of the Visitation of the Virgin. It is usually this basilica, which still is the destination of many pilgrims to this day, which is represented on devotional prints from Scherpenheuvel such as the example below.

Jean Clement and other pilgrims being healed by Our Lady of Scherpenheuvel, with the new basilica in the background. Printed by Johannes I van den Sande (1600–c. 1675), after 1620. Antwerpen, Ruusbroec Institute, Collection Alfons Thijs, KP 31.17.

This observation may help us in dating the woodblock. Contrary to the date of c. 1750 offered in the catalogue of Samuel Gedge Ltd. (from whom the Kislak Center acquired the piece) it is more likely that the woodblock is from a much earlier date. The fact that the woodblock does not depict the new basilica that was built from 1609 onwards (and consecrated in 1627), but instead the chapel that stood at the pilgrimage site before, indicates that the woodblock was produced in the short period between 1603/04, the years in which the miracles of Hans Clements and Catherine du Bus took place, and 1609 when the chapel was torn down in order to replace it with the new basilica, or certainly before 1627 when the new basilica was consecrated. Given the fact that devotional prints such as this woodblock were intended to propagate the cult of both the Virgin and the pilgrimage town, it seems to make little sense that one would not depict the impressive new church on devotional prints after it was completed. Moreover, the striking similarities in iconography with the copperplate engraving in the third edition of Numan’s Historie printed in 1606 as well as with a devotional print from 1602 and especially an approbation by the church on 17 November 1604 (see below) seem to support a dating in the first decade of the seventeenth century.

–Patricia Stoop

References

Bowen, K.L., Marian Pilgrimage Sites in Brabant: A Bibliography of Books Printed Between 1600–1850 (Leuven: Peeters, 2008).

De Meyer, M., ‘Een oude bedevaartprent van Scherpenheuvel’, Volkskunde: driemaandelijks tijdschrift voor de studie van het volksleven, 55 (1954), 144–45.

Duerloo, Luc and Marc Wingens, Scherpenheuvel: het Jeruzalem van de Lage Landen (Leuven: Davidsfonds, 2002).

Duerloo, Luc, Dynasty and Piety: Archduke Albert (1598–1621) and Habsburg Political Culture in an Age of Religious Wars (London: Routledge, 2012).

Samuel Gedge LTD, Catalogue xxv, no. 20.

A Woodblock on Pilgrimage: From Flanders to Philadelphia At the beginning of this year, the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts of the University of Pennsylvania purchased a unique and fascinating woodblock (

[decorishing]

[gallery] Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to San Juan Diego in Mexico in 1531, eventually providing miraculous roses to substantiate his claim to the bishop. A beloved apparition of Mary, she is the patron saint of the Americas. In this depiction, she holds a young family in her hands, lifting them up in prayer. The text of the prayer within this painting is the 2nd half of the prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mystical Rose: "Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mystical Rose, [make intercession for the holy Church, protect the sovereign Pontiff, help all those who invoke you in their necessities, and since you are the ever Virgin Mary and Mother of the true God,] obtain for us from your most holy Son the grace of keeping our faith, of sweet hope in the midst of the bitterness of life of burning charity, and the precious gift of final perseverance. Amen." [amz_corss_sell asin="B07K2J9HXT"] https://www.decorishing.com/product/our-lady-of-guadalupe-8x10-mystical-rose-catholic-art/?feed_id=38670&_unique_id=62876431a0fc1

[nydiaj7547462-blog]

A Residence Conversion Concept.

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