Remarkable painting discoveries from a nun and a sainted religious brother, a book about African American saints in the making, the self-chosen martyrdom of Father Velasco in Endo’s The Samurai . . ..
Meet Orsola Maddalena Caccia, the Remarkable Painting Nun Whose Work Just Entered the Met’s Collection in a Surprise Donation
Katy Carl, Dappled Things Editor-in-Chief, recommends this link.
Suor Orsola Maddalena Caccia (1596–1676) was an Ursuline nun, daughter of a well-known painter, who spent most of her life in monastic life with her five blood sisters who joined the Ursulines before her. The studio she directed helped support the monastery with art commissions. The Met has acquired several Caccia paintings in a recent surprise bequest.
Caccia’s still lifes are especially valued for their quality and their spiritual significance. The Met characterizes Suor Cassia’s work as mannerist, abstract, and modern—although the fruits, the apples, the pears, the apricots, and the pomegranate especially, are the most realistic I think I’ve ever seen.
Sister Caccia also executed many religious paintings on commission. And they usually included flowers.
Saint Anthony of Padua with the Infant Jesus, in the church of Sant’ Andrea Apostolo in Castelnuovo Don Bosco (Asti)
The Difference Between Martyrdom and a Victim-Complex
Katy Carl recommends this linked article, with a note to Natalie Morrill, , DT Fiction Editor, “Natalie, you might like this.” (Natalie recently was part of a Collegium Institute online discussion series about Endo’s The Samurai, as part of their “Writing Between Cultures” Virtual Campus Seminars.)
Wesley Walker at Church Life Journal demonstrates the difference between martyrdom and a victim-complex, using the character Father Velasco from The Samurai, who ends by changing his self-aggrandizing ways and by seeking his own martyrdom.
Our Lady of the Rosary (Japanese), unknown painter
Black Catholics on the Road to Sainthood
Recommended by Karen Barbre Ullo, DTs former Managing Editor and current Chrism Press Editor.
In Black Catholics on the Road to Sainthood, Michael R. Heinlein provides the first book to explore the lives of the six Black Catholics from the United States whose causes are under formal consideration by the Catholic Church for canonization. . . . Venerable Pierre Toussaint, Venerable Henriette Delille, Venerable Father Augustus Tolton, Servant of God Mother Mary Lange, Servant of God Julia Greeley, and Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman are sources of inspiration for us all.
Polish Nobleman, Freedom Fighter, Painter, Franciscan Tertiary, Saint, Founder of the Albertine Order, Devoted to the Poor and Homeless
Recommended by Katy Carl: “h/t the lovely and talented Jane Greer.”
St. Brother Albert Chmielowski gave up a promising career as a painter to live among and served the poor and despised. Pope St. John Paul II, who began as an actor and a playwright, said that he found support for his own vocation in the life of St. Albert Chmielowski, whom he saw as an example of leaving behind the world of the arts to follow religious life.
See also, “St. Albert Chmielowski: The Painter Who Became an Advocate for the Poor,” at National Catholic Register.
“Ecce Homo” (begun 1879 finished late 1880s), by Saint Albert Chiemelowski, in the Ecce Home Sanctuary of the Albertine Sisters (the female branch of the order he founded to serve the poor) in Krakow, Poland
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