Way of Beauty

Spanning the gap between the late medieval world and the so-called modern age, a phenomenon called the devotio moderna reshaped European religious sensibilities. A variety of pious interests characterize this loose movement, which strove to…

BY GINA LOEHR The joy of Christmas is best understood by children. Excused from the stress of planning, blissfully unaware of the expenses of gift-giving and the labor of holiday preparations, little ones are free to simply relish the glory…

John the Baptist may be one of the most important figures to appear before Christ’s actual ministry. In the Gospels, it is John who presages the ministry of Christ. He is in his very essence a fulfillment of the prophecy in the Book of…

BY DANIEL MITSUI In theology, a mystery is defined as a truth that exceeds the natural power of knowing. Nothing so profound can be explained fully in either words or pictures. But the Catholic response is not to give up talking about it or…

One biblical event that has always astonished me is the Ascension. I remember when I first learned about it when I was young, I couldn’t help being struck by how sad it made me feel. Jesus, who had died a horrible death, had just returned…

by Fr. Anthony Giambrone, OP For Maurice Denis (1870–1943), the vocation to create sacred art was clear from his youth. At the age of 15, with a sense of destined conviction, he wrote the following words in his journal: “I have to be a…

by Fr. Anthony Giambrone, OP Around the turn of the 20th century, a burst of creative energy was transforming the artistic landscape of western civilization in revolutionary ways. In countries such as France and Poland, where both the…

Blasco de Grañén, a Spanish artist from Zaragoza in the kingdom of Aragon, painted Nativity in the 15th century to depict the Magi adoring the Christ Child. Presumably it was created as one panel in a much larger retablo, an elaborate…

The Nativity of Jesus has been inspiring Christian art since Christian art first began.  One of the most primitive Christian images, in fact, dating back to the third century and found in the Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome, is a picture of…

Certainly one of the most gifted and original painters of all time, Caravaggio (1571–1610) was also a moral shipwreck of the first order. The dramatic play of shadows that is the characteristic mark of his style somehow reflects the…