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
In the Middle Ages, this would have been local healers, but very often priests, who would have been called to visit people near death in order to hear their confessions, and administer their last rites. During The Black Death of 1347 (and the years following), priests were faced with the...
Transforming the theme of the temptation of Saint Anthony into a celebration of nature's magnificence, Flemish landscape and still life painter Roelandt Savery depicted the hermit Anthony reading a Bible--oblivious to the antics of numerous fantastic demons--while seated in a rustic cell. His wooden hut is nestled in...
St. Joseph Church is located near Kaupo, Maui, Hawaii and was established in 1862 by the missionary Catholic priests who evangelized on Maui beginning in the mid 1800s. It was Bishop Louis Maigret who blessed the Church on June 29, 1862. St. Joseph Church served a thriving community of ranchers,...
The communion of saints is the spiritual solidarity which binds together the faithful on earth, the souls in purgatory, and the saints in heaven in the organic unity of the same mystical body under Christ its head, and in a constant interchange of supernatural offices. The participants in that solidarity...
When this painting was made in 1333, according to the date given on the lower frame, the style was a bit old-fashioned. Saint Paul’s frontal stance, the intensity and fervor of his direct gaze, the inclusion of his name in red-backed gold letters on either side of his head,...
In the Roman Catholic tradition, there are many religious institutes of nuns and sisters (the female equivalent of male monks or friars), each with its own charism or special character. Traditionally, nuns are members of enclosed religious orders and take solemn religious vows, while sisters do not live in the...
The Apostle John was one of the "pillars" of the Jerusalem church after Jesus' death. He was one of the original twelve apostles and is thought to be the only one to have lived into old age and not be killed for his faith. It had been...
Savoldo depicts Mary Magdalene in the Garden of Gethsemane peering from behind shimmering folds of satin fabric, tentatively looking outward at the viewer. She is identifiable by her ointment jar on the left, containing the oil with which she anointed Christ’s feet. She stands by the sepulchre, preparing to...
1971 Day of Mourning -- Third annual commemoration ceremonies for the 5,000 victims of the 1968 Hue Massacre began in Phu Cam Catholic Church. The Huế massacre was the summary executions and mass murder perpetrated by the Viet Cong and People's Army of Vietnam during their capture,...
This coloring page show Christ and many of his followers through the ages carrying various sized crosses. As Christ once said, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Lk 9:23). When the cross is embraced it...
Near death after being tied to a tree and shot through with arrows, Saint Sebastian barely notices the angel helping to remove them. Anthony van Dyck painted the subject of Saint Sebastian many times, choosing various moments in the saint's story but never focusing on the one thing...
In the Roman Catholic tradition, there are many religious institutes of nuns and sisters (the female equivalent of male monks or friars), each with its own charism or special character. Traditionally, nuns are members of enclosed religious orders and take solemn religious vows, while sisters do not live in the...
“The angels surround the priest,” writes St. John Chrysostom. “The whole sanctuary and the space before the altar is filled with the heavenly Powers come to honor Him who is present upon the altar.” And elsewhere: “Think now of what kind of choir you are going to enter. Although vested...
Arms outstretched, Saint Francis of Paola levitates while surrounded by a divine light. The crowd surges towards the saint, whose expression conveys his communion with God at the apex of the composition. Famed for his miraculous healing powers, Saint Francis of Paola was invited to France by the sickly King...
In the Roman Catholic tradition, there are many religious institutes of nuns and sisters (the female equivalent of male monks or friars), each with its own charism or special character. Traditionally, nuns are members of enclosed religious orders and take solemn religious vows, while sisters do not live in the...
Clotilde (c. 474–545), also known as Clothilde, Clotilda, Clotild, Rotilde etc., was a princess of the kingdom of Burgundy. She was supposedly descended from the Gothic king Athanaric and became the second wife of the Frankish king Clovis I (r. 481–509) in 493. The Merovingian dynasty to which...
Carlo Dolci painted this as part of a series depicting the Four Evangelists. Matthew is depicted transcribing the opening words of his Gospel, which are accurately reproduced in Hebrew, the saint's native language. With characteristically detailed brushwork, Dolci meticulously describes the textures of the saint's wispy...
Ordination is the sacramental ceremony in which a man becomes a deacon, priest, or bishop and enabled to minister in Christ's name and that of the Church. There are three ordinations in the Sacrament of Holy Orders: diaconate; priesthood; and episcopal. The ordination ceremony includes various rituals, rich...
The phrase "Armor of God" (Greek: πανοπλίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ, panoplian tou Theou) is derived from Ephesians 6:11: "Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." (King James Version). As a biblical reference, the...
This painting depicts the heavenly vision of Saint Francis of Paola (1416–1507), founder of the Order of Minims, a religious order committed to perpetual abstinence and acts of humility. The saint experiences a vision in which the word “Charitas” (meaning Charity) appears in an aureole of golden light, accompanied...
This photo is from a Catholic retreat in 1912. History of Catholicism in Korea Spanish Jesuit priest Gregorio Céspedes was possibly the first Catholic missionary in Korea, arriving in Busan on 27 December 1593. However, Catholicism (and Christianity in general) in Korea more generally began in 1784 when Yi Seung-hun...
The flight into Egypt is a story recounted in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 2:13–23) and in New Testament apocrypha. Soon after the visit by the Magi, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him to flee to Egypt with Mary and the infant Jesus since...
This small, rich panel was originally the left side of a diptych, which, along with a right-hand panel depicting the Virgin Mary (now in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg), depicts one image of the Annunciation—the moment when the archangel Gabriel brings Mary the news that she will give birth...
In the Roman Catholic tradition, there are many religious institutes of nuns and sisters (the female equivalent of male monks or friars), each with its own charism or special character. Traditionally, nuns are members of enclosed religious orders and take solemn religious vows, while sisters do not live in the...
