Dominican saints & blesseds: February 2009 Archives

Known in the Dominicans as Brother John from Fiesole (c. 1395-February 18, 1455), we know him best as Fra Angelico.

In declaring Fra Angelico the Patron of Catholic Artists in 1982, Pope John Paul II said: "Angelico was reported to say "He who does Christ's work must stay with Christ always". This motto earned him the epithet "Blessed Angelico", because of the perfect integrity of his life and the almost divine beauty of the images he painted, to a superlative extent those of the Blessed Virgin Mary."

Fra Angelico's grave stone in the Dominican Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva (Rome) the epitaph says:

When singing my praise, don't liken my talents to those of Apelles. Say, rather, that, in the name of Christ, I gave all I had to the poor. The deeds that count on Earth are not the ones that count in Heaven. I, Giovanni, am the flower of Tuscany.

When in Rome, I pay a visit to the grave of Fra Angelico to pray for the Catholic artists.

It has been said that "Jordan who, more than any one man after Saint Dominic himself, created the spirit of the Order, gave to it a joy and an informality in its daily life which are amongst its greatest treasures, for they enshrine and express a whole theology of religious life."

May Blessed Jordan of Saxony pray for the Order of Preachers today and always, and grant an increase of vocations to the Dominican Family. May he stir up the hearts of young men and women, as once he did on this earth, with a fervour for Truth, to give themselves in its service in the Order of Preachers. May he clothe us, his brothers and sisters, with his zeal and passion for Christ the Word, and may he give us cause joyfully to laugh in his company for ever. Amen.