Happy Shrove Tuesday

Mardi Gras Parade Leroy Neiman

Maslenitsa Tuesday, Boris Kustodiev

The Battle of Carnival and Lent
Pieter Brueghel the Elder

Carnaval................

Museu de Arte Naif do Brasil

Maracatu da zona da mata Marcio Melo 2002

Blessed Fra Angelico- Feb. 17

Today is the anniversary of the death of Blessed Fra Angelico, beaitified in 1982 and declared patron of catholic artists in 1984. He has always been one of my favorite artists, perhaps because the Blessed Virgin is a favorite subject for him. Enjoy these examples of his work.

So, Who Says There Were Never Female Apostles???

Today is the feast day of St. Miriamne, the sister of St. Philip the Apostle. Holy Miriamne, the Apostolic Virgin, made a vow of virginity and traveled with her brother and St. Bartholomew, preaching throughout Asia. While preaching in Hieropolis, Miriamne was arrested with Philip and Bartholomew after hundreeds were converted to Christianity. The three were crucified, but as they hang on the cross, there was a great earthquake, and the people feared that God was punishing them. They rushed to remove the three from their crosses. Miriamne and Bartholomew survived, but Philip died. Bartholomew went on to India, and Miriamne went on to preach in Asia Minor, where she died a natural death.

What interests me is how the Church seems (and I do say seems) to have supressed the story of her life and ministry. She was one of the first preachers, she performed miracles and converted many to the faith, and yet all that can be found about her is a paragraph or two in relation to her co-ministry with her brother, and the only icon or image of her at all is this icon.

Other female apostles and women important in proclaiming the Gospel and building the Church during the first centuries include St. Junia the Apostle, pictured below, Bishop Theodora, Epiktas, Kale, and, and Ammion- all referred to as elders or prebyters, and many women who had been ordained as deacons and priests before the ban of ordination to the priesthood at the Council of Laodicea in the 4th century, and the ban of the ordination of women to the diacontate under the age of 40 at the Council of Chalcedon in the 5th century.

President's Day: A Tribute to the Father of the Nation and the Savior of the Union: gods of The American Religion

Apotheosis of Washington

H. Weishaupt after Samuel MooreApotheosis of George Washington, ca. 1860

The Apotheosis of Lincoln

Transfiguration,Tim Steel

Painting of Abraham Lincoln at the Thomas D Clark Center for Kentucky History

Happy Valentine's Day (and Blessed Feast of SS Cyril and Methodius

SS. Cyril and Methodius

St. Valentine, by the hand of Aidan Hart

Cupid and Psyche, Francois Eduard Picot

Feb 11-

Ruby, performed by Ray Charles, Lyrics : Mitchelle Paris / Music : Heinz Roemheld (who died on this day in 1985.

It is also the anniversary of the death of Pakistani artist, Sadequain, who died in 1987. Here are some of his works.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Feb 10 Feasts

Today is the feast if the Shipwreck of St. Paul in Malta, considered the beginning of the Church in Malta. This fresco remembering the event, which is recorded in Acts, is by Nicolò Circignani, known as Pomarancio.

Madonna and Child enthroned among St. Benedict, St. Scholastica, St. Ursula, and St. John Gualberto - Benozzo Gozzoli Today is also the feast of St. Scholastica, the twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia.

Today is the anniversary of the death of Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This portrait of him was painted by V.G. Perov in 1872.


“What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love”- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Feast of St Maron- "founder" of the Maronite Church

February 9th is the feast day of St. Maron, whose spiritual teachings led to the founding of the Maronite Church. In celebration of his feast, and of the Maronite Church- here are a few icons in the Maronite tradition.

African American Art: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ- Lodwar Cathedral, Kenya

African American Art

Today is a feria in the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church- meaning no saint is commemorated, although there is an ancient tradition in the Church of honoring the Mother of God on all Saturdays. However, since today is an open day, it seems like a great chance to remember African American History month by sharing a few pieces of art from the African American community. Enjoy!

LowCountry Cookout- John Jones

Camp Meeting- John Jones

Holy Ghost-Annie Lee

Altar Call-Melvin King

Let's Play Church-Edwin Lester

St. Dorothea- and Roses and Apples

St. Dorothea was martyred on this day in 311, during the Diocletian persecution of Christians, in Cappadocia. As she was on her way to be executed, one of the Roman lawyers, Theophilus, mocked her saying, "Bride of Christ, send me some apples and roses from your bridegroom's garden." She replied that she would. At the place of her execution she asked to have a moment to pray. After her prayer an angel in the form of a beautiful child appeared to her with three apples and three roses, which Dorothea placed in her headdress and sent to Theophilus. She then suffered martyrdom. When Theophilus saw the apples and roses he was shaken, and knowing that it was impossible for Dorothea to have found them in the ice and snow covered ground of Cappadocia, confessed Christ and was converted. At first the Romans thought he was joking; but when he persuaded them he was serious, he too was martyred as a Christian. St Dorothea is the patron saint of florists.

This painting, The Beheading of St. Dorothea, is by Hans Baldung, called Grien, 1516.

Icon of St. Dorothea

St. Dorothy of Ceasarea, Charles Imbro, 2007

And since my Zachary loves still life paintings, here a few featuring apples and roses, in honor of St. Dorothea, and her gift from God to Theophilus.

Meteor, by Luiz Coelho, 2009

Apple Rose Crop, by Susan Kennedy

Martyrs of Japan

The Urakami Saint Takashi Nagai at prayer.

The ruins of St Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption, Urakami, Nagasaki, after the Atom Bomb exploded near it.

Martyrs of Nagasaki found in the choir of La Recoleta in Cuzco, Peru.

holy card

unknown- 17th century

Unknown Franciscan artist, 1640

The Martyrs of Japan, Jacques Callot c. 1627-1628