This site's editor-in-chief is a Catholic husband, father, and author. He loves sharing the Catholic faith through art and graphic design. Check out his prayer books and coloring books on Amazon.com
Enthroned side by side, Christ as Savior of the World blesses his mother Mary, crowned Queen of Heaven for her divine maternity. In return, Mary bows her head in prayerful devotion, appealing for the redemption of humankind. The development of early printing methods during the 15th century offered more people...
Bernat Martorell was the greatest painter of the first half of the fifteenth century in Catalonia in northeastern Spain. Depicted here is the most frequently represented episode from the popular legend of Saint George, in which the model Christian knight saves a town and rescues a beautiful princess. Conceived in...
Saint Joseph's Catholic Church, located at 812 Poplar Street in Macon, Georgia, was listed on the NRHP on July 14, 1971. The church is located in the middle of Downtown Macon and takes up one block. It is operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah. The towers...
Ecce Homo are the Latin words used by Pontius Pilate in the Vulgate translation of the Gospel of John, when he presents a scourged Jesus Christ, bound and crowned with thorns, to a hostile crowd shortly before his Crucifixion. The original New Testament Greek is rendered by most English Bible...
The liberation of the apostle Peter is an event described in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 12 in which the apostle Peter is rescued from prison by an angel. Although described in a short textual passage, the tale has given rise to theological discussions and has been the subject...
The Church of St. Louis of the French (Italian: San Luigi dei Francesi, French: Saint Louis des Français, Latin: S. Ludovici Francorum de Urbe) is a Roman Catholic church in Rome, not far from Piazza Navona. The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, to St. Denis the Areopagite and...
The liberation of the apostle Peter is an event described in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 12 in which the apostle Peter is rescued from prison by an angel. Although described in a short textual passage, the tale has given rise to theological discussions and has been the subject...
This loosely painted sketch is the preliminary design for an altarpiece in the Church of Saint Ulrich, Vienna. Mary and Joseph have brought the infant Jesus to the temple to be inducted into the Jewish faith; the aged priest Simeon cradles the infant in his arms, turning his gaze to...
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (July 25, 2018) Lt. David Hammond, assistant command chaplain of the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), recites a prayer during Roman Catholic Mass in the ship’s chapel. Bonhomme Richard is currently underway in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations. (U.S....
Welcome to another newsletter. I hope you had a wonderful week! Also, happy Independence Day! May you experience wonderful cook-out food, fireworks, time with family—and most importantly—time with God. Letters If you want to share your thoughts, ideas, comments, concerns, and art here in the newsletter please reply...
This image was originally by Andrea Mantegna, who was court artist to the Gonzaga family in Mantua for forty-six years, shows Saint Andrew cleverly stepping into our space, and features Mantua's most revered saints. Supposedly Saint Longinus carried two relics to the city: some earth on which Christ&...
Saint Paul and Saint Sirus are panel paintings likely from the same large altarpiece. Panel painting was a lengthy process that required many steps. The panel is a plank of wood that was prepared with many layers of gesso, a glue-size-chalk substance that forms the white base layer of the...
The Scala Sancta (English: Holy Stairs, Italian: Scala Santa) are a set of 28 white marble steps that are Roman Catholic relics located in an edifice on extraterritorial property of the Holy See in Rome, Italy proximate to the Archbasilica of Saint John in Laterano. Officially, the edifice is titled...
In this image, Saint John the Evangelist and four mourning women gather around the cross on which Christ's emaciated body rests. These figures were meant to model the emotional compassion to be felt by the viewer. Schongauer's image focuses on crowded scenes, grotesque physiognomies of Christ&...
Boucher painted this picture for his patron, Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV. Partly to please the religious faction at court, she commissioned devotional pictures for the chapels in her various residences. She ordered this one of Saint John, her patron saint, for a chapel in the Capuchin...
The world-famous International Pilgrim Virgin Statue (IPVS) of Fatima was sculpted in 1947 by famous sculptor José Thedim. The image reflects the precise instructions of Sister Lucia (the surviving seer at Fatima). Her desire was that the pilgrim image represent Our Lady’s position when she revealed herself as the...
This image, by Martin Schongauer, portrays the visit of the three magi and their long retinue as witnesses to the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ as recounted in the biblical book of Matthew. The Virgin Mary is seated in front of the entrance of a stable made up from the...
These panels depicting Saints Anthony the Abbot and Michael originally flanked a central scene of the Madonna and Child with Angels, now lost, to form a triptych. Giovanni di Cosimo de’Medici of Florence commissioned the ensemble in 1457 as a gift to Alfonso V of Aragon. Fra Filippo Lippi,...
The Discalced or Reformed Carmelite, a branch of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, was founded by St. Teresa of Avila, in 1562. Before her death, she established 16 Monasteries of Nuns. The first monastery of the Second Order of Carmel was established in the U.S. in...
This engraving is half of a two-print scene depicting the Annunciation to the Virgin, when the angel Gabriel told Mary she would miraculously give birth to the Son of God. Presumably buyers could purchase the prints separately, although Schongauer probably hoped people would want to collect them both. His engraved...
Little is known about the life and career of Sint Jans. He seems to have been born in Haarlem in Holland in the northern Low Countries where he may have been attached to the Knights of Saint John as a lay brother, and likely produced an altarpiece for that order....
This statue was taken at The Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America. This monastery is a Franciscan complex at 14th and Quincy Streets in the Brookland neighborhood of Northeast Washington, D.C. Located on a hill called Mount Saint Sepulcher, and anchored by the Memorial Church of the...
This engraving is half of a two-print scene depicting the Annunciation to the Virgin, when the angel Gabriel told Mary she would miraculously give birth to the Son of God. Presumably buyers could purchase the prints separately, although Schongauer probably hoped people would want to collect them both. His engraved...
Photograph of a Franciscan monk standing in the exterior front corridor overlooking the garden at Mission Santa Barbara, ca.1904. He is wearing a habit. His right hand rests on the baluster. The tiled floor and rafters of the ceiling are visible. At left part of a picket fence encloses...
