Baroque Sacred Art: Hope that Transcends Suffering (Part 2)

How the tradition spread across Europe, and the two great tendencies within it

Last week, in Part 1, I introduced the Baroque sacred tradition: its origins in the Counter-Reformation directives of the Council of Trent, its founding principles as illustrated in the work of Federico Barocci and José de Ribera, and the visual logic that makes the style work in harmony with how we actually perceive the world. This week I turn to how the tradition spread across Europe, to the two main tendencies that developed within it, and to the important practical question of how sacred art differs from portraiture.

Job Mocked by his Wife, by the French artist Georges de La Tour, French, c. 1625-50. This is an example of Baroque Naturalism

The Organic Spread of the Tradition

The works discussed in these posts illustrate the tradition’s principles. Artists of the time did not subscribe to a Baroque manifesto requiring conformity to a particular style; the word ‘Baroque’ did not come into use until much later. The adoption of this style, which spread across Europe, was an organic process driven by the striking beauty of the new form. Patrons saw the art being produced and wanted more. In the context of the time, artists sought not to establish a distinctive personal style, but to show patrons their ability to work within whatever was considered the highest and most noble form. The descriptions of a general pattern offered here are, inevitably, generalizations; there are always exceptions, whether artists who consciously resisted the norms or those who lacked the skill to follow the prototype. Even so, when we look back at this period and try to discern a pattern, the degree of conformity to the principles described in Part 1 is striking.

Within this broad conformity, different influences produced distinct tendencies among master artists. Some proponents of what is called Baroque Classicism, including Nicolas Poussin and Annibale Carracci, sought a more classical look, closer to the High Renaissance, which in turn looked to the styles of ancient Greece and Rome for inspiration. They produced composite paintings from drawings of models or from Greek and Roman statuary, sometimes presenting biblical scenes anachronistically, with figures in classical dress and hairstyles. These artists also painted scenes from Greek and Roman history and mythology, often intending them to be interpreted as Christian allegories.

Here is an example by Carracci: the Pietà, in which the Mother of God embraces Christ after he is taken down from the cross. The name comes from the Italian word for pity.

Annibale Carracci, Pietà, c. 1600

Carracci’s work includes the stylistic elements described in Part 1, but he has also consciously drawn on the classical tradition. The classical influence is clearly visible in the putti, the playful, chubby infant figures derived from ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. From the 16th century onward, artists widely adopted these motifs in Christian sacred art to represent cherubs, as in the angels described in Scripture, and occasionally to symbolize God’s omnipresence. This convention also gave rise to the modern use of ‘cherubic’ to describe a beautiful, plump baby. The classical influence is also visible in the facial features of both Christ and Our Lady, which are informed by the idealized forms used by ancient Greek sculptors for their gods and goddesses and subsequently by High Renaissance artists for their saints. For comparison, here is the Venus of the Louvre, a Roman copy of an earlier Greek original dating from the 2nd century BC.

Venus (Capitoline type), 2nd century BC. Roman copy of a Greek original

Other artists pushed back against Carracci’s method of synthesizing composite designs from numerous preparatory drawings and studies. Instead, they championed a more rigorously naturalistic approach, emphasizing direct observation from life and, where possible, painting straight onto the canvas with minimal preliminary work. Caravaggio became the most radical and influential figure in this tendency, inspiring artists such as the French painter Georges de La Tour and the Spanish school of Baroque Naturalism, whose leading representative was Diego Velázquez. José Ribera, whose work we examined in Part 1, also belongs firmly to this current. While the contrast between the two approaches should not be overstated, both stood within the Baroque tradition, valuing both drawing from nature and selectively modifying appearances to draw out invisible truths; the Caravaggesque painters prioritized raw immediacy and dramatic lighting over classical harmony and compositional refinement. Here is one of Velázquez’s most celebrated religious paintings: his Crucifixion.

Diego Velázquez, Christ Crucified, c. 1632

Notice that Christ’s face is largely in shadow. In paintings of Christ or the saints, the artist must depict the figure as a distinct individual while also emphasizing the universal human qualities that viewers can emulate. After all, we cannot imitate what is uniquely personal to a saint or to Christ; we can only strive to imitate those virtues we share through our common humanity. For this reason, sacred art tends to place less emphasis on the face alone and instead highlights the whole person. This poses a challenge: how does the artist convey the subject’s inner spiritual state when we typically read emotion and mood primarily through facial expressions? Baroque painters addressed this by using more pronounced gestures, prioritizing what we would today call body language. This accounts for the dramatic style of many Baroque paintings. That is not to say that Baroque artists sought only to convey drama. In this painting, in which a peace that transcends suffering is conveyed, Velázquez gives the stationary torso far greater prominence than he would in a conventional portrait, where the face would dominate.

Sacred Art and Portraiture: An Important Distinction

A common flaw in the work of contemporary artists who attempt sacred art in naturalistic styles is to dress a model in biblical clothing and then paint a portrait. The facial expression becomes the dominant element, and the result, however skillfully rendered as portraiture, looks exactly like what it is: the girl or boy from next door dressed up as Jesus or the Virgin Mary. The effect is closer to a staged Victorian tableau vivant than to authentic sacred art.

Sacred art differs from portraiture in that its primary goal is to emphasize the universal aspects of the human person, so that the way a saint incarnates those qualities in his life can serve as a model for us. Portraiture, by contrast, emphasizes what is unique to the individual. Those qualities, precisely because they are unique, cannot be emulated by anyone else. That is not to say that what is unique to the person is ignored altogether in sacred art; we always access the universal through the particular, and so the saint must retain the characteristics that identify and distinguish him from all others. It is a matter of differing emphasis.

The Middle Ground: Rubens and Reni

The two poles of Baroque style, Classicism and Naturalism, do not look strikingly different to most modern eyes. To the artists and connoisseurs of the period, however, they appeared hugely distinct, and artists in each camp argued, sometimes bitterly, over which represented the most authentically Christian approach. Between the two extremes, a broad spectrum included naturalism and classicism in varying degrees.

Artists generally considered to occupy the middle ground between Baroque Naturalism and Baroque Classicism include Rubens and the Italian painter Guido Reni. The painting below, St James the Greater by Reni, was painted between 1636 and 1638 and represents this balance: the idealization characteristic of the classical tendency is present, but the warmth and directness of feeling are firmly Baroque in spirit.

Guido Reni, St James the Greater, 1636-38

The Baroque sacred tradition, whether in its classical or naturalistic tendency, produced a body of work of extraordinary range and beauty. It was from this wellspring that the secular art to be explored in future posts would flow, as the same visual principles and habits of perception, formed in the service of the liturgy, found their natural extension into every aspect of the visible world.

The Feast of All Saints 2026: The Praise of God in His Creation

From the Breviary according to the use of the Roman Curia, 1529, the continuation of the sermon for the third day in the Octave of All Saints.

Therefore, first let us reverently rise today to praise Him, whom all the world obeys, who also Himself praises His servants, and makes them worthy of praise. For He is God Almighty, whose understanding is superior to all, whose being is most mighty, whose power and will are great above all; the sole beginning and creator of all things spiritual and corporeal; substance that surpasses all understanding, maker of such works that in their goodness and perfection, commend Him as their creator and declare him in very deed, namely, the world, and the rational creatures. And in His might, He made those things that are very great, the world, that is, in its immensity; and in His wisdom, He made those things which are very beautiful, to wit, the rational creatures which are capable of understanding; and in His goodness, He made those things which are useful, each one most excellent in its kind, distinct in their various ways, and arranged in a most becoming order. And by their service, we are helped to serve Him, and spurred on to praise Him here (in this world) and forever.

God Creating the World, from a Bible Moralisée made for King St Louis IX of France in 1226-34, now kept at the cathedral of Toledo, Spain. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.)

Durandus on Prayer for the Dead (Part 1)

The following is taken from the entry on All Souls’ Day in William Durandus’ Rationale Divinorum Officiorum (7.35), the Summa Theologiae of medieval liturgical commentaries. This is one of the longest sections of the seventh book, which covers the Sanctoral cycle, and will be presented in several parts as we begin the month especially dedicated to prayer for the dead.

This Office follows the feast of All Saints, and three consecutive days are dedicated to three mysteries. For the vigil of All Saints is a day of affliction; the solemnity is a day of exultation; but today is a day of prayer. On the first day, we afflict ourselves by fasting, as we remember the misery of this present life. On the second, we rejoice together with the blessedness of the Saints, bringing thanksgivings to the Lord. On the third, we pray for those who are detained in purgatory, obtaining for them with our prayers either a lesser suffering, or full absolution.

The commemoration of all the faithful departed was instituted by the Church on this day so that they might be helped by general services… for as Peter Damian says, St Odilo (born 962; abbot of Cluny from 994-1049), upon learning that at the volcano of Sicily (i.e. Mt Etna) frequent voices and wails of weeping demons were heard, because the souls of the deceased were being snatched away from their hands through almsgiving and prayers, decreed that in his monasteries, after the feast of All Saints, there should be a commemoration of the departed, which was afterwards approved by the whole Church. …

A statue of St Odilo of Cluny in the basilica of St Urban in Troyes, France. As the inventor of All Souls’ Day, he is shown standing in the middle of the flames of Purgatory. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by GO69, CC0 1.0)

This Office had its beginning in the Old Law, for, just as Ambrose says, when Jacob was dead, Joseph and his other brothers with many Egyptians brought him to Hebron, but first they wept for forty days in Egypt, and afterwards wept for him for seven days in the field of Harad. And again, we read in Deuteronomy that when Moses was dead, the people of Israel wept for thirty days, as they had done for Aaron and Miriam. Again, Solomon says, “The mourning for the dead is seven days: but for a fool and an ungodly man all the days of their life”, because they die forever. (This is actually in Sirach 22, 13, which medievals often spoke of, inexplicably, as if it were written by Solomon.)

Note that some people keep the memorial for the dead on the third day, or for three days, representing the three days of the Lord’s burial, looking to the resurrection of Christ, who rose on the third day, and desiring the resurrection with Christ for the dead; or else, looking to the Trinity; or so that the sins which they committed may be forgiven them, because while they were living they sinned in three ways, namely in thought, word and deed.

A Cretan icon of the 1490s.

Others have Mass celebrated for seven days, and both of these customs are shown in the book of Numbers (19, 11) where it is said, “he that touches the cadaver of a man, and for this sake shall be unclean for seven days, shall be sprinkled of this water on the third day and on the seventh, and thus shall he be cleansed.” Clearly, the one unclean because of the cadaver signifies the soul of the dead man, polluted because of dead works.

Therefore the Mass is celebrated for seven days, first, so that the dead man may be able to come the more quickly to the Sabbath of eternal rest; second, so that all the sins may be forgiven him which he committed in life, life lived over seven days. (This refers to the classical idea of the seven ages of man.) Third, because of the sevenfold nature of soul and body; for the soul has three powers, namely the rational, the concupiscent, and the irascible, while the body is made of the four elements. Therefore, in order that the sins which a man has committed through this sevenfold nature … may be deleted, a sevenfold celebration is made for the dead. Fourth, just as the sons of Jacob wept for seven days when he died, as mentioned above, so also the Church celebrates the Office for its Dead for seven days.

Others have Mass celebrated for the Dead for thirty days, or on the thirtieth day, in the first place because the sons of Israel wept that many days for Moses and Aaron, as is mentioned above; in the second place, because three times ten makes thirty, and by three we understand the Trinity, by ten the decalogue. Therefore, we make three tens for the dead, so that the sins they have committed in the observation of the decalogue or the precepts of Christ, and against the Trinity, maybe forgiven them by the mercy of God. In the third place, because the number of the moon is perfected in thirty days; therefore the Office is done for the dead for thirty days, so that their works may be understood to be full before God.

The Last Testament, Death and Burial of Moses, 1482, by Luca Signorelli. Fresco on a wall of the Sistine Chapel.

Some also celebrate forty Masses for a period of forty days, so that the sins which they have committed against the teaching of the Four Gospels and in the ten precepts of the Law may be forgiven them. Again, those who keep the fortieth day represent the Lord’s burial, desiring that the dead have glory with Christ who for forty hours lay in the tomb, counting from the hour in which He breathed forth his spirit to the last hour of Sunday night, on which He rose, according to Augustine. They represent also that which is said above, that when Jacob had died, his sons mourned him for forty days.

Others keep a period of fifty days. In the Gloss (i.e. the Glossa ordinaria, the standard Biblical commentary of reference in the Middle Ages), Bede and Gregory comment on the place in which it is written that Abraham asked of the Lord who wanted to destroy Sodom (Genesis 18, 16-33), “ ‘if there should be fifty therein, will thou destroy them?’ and the Lord answered, ‘No’, ” saying that fifty is a perfect number, which signifies the jubilee year, that is, the eighth age, in which there shall be forgiveness and full liberty. Therefore, so that the souls of the dead may obtain full liberty and remission of their sins, they celebrate the office for them for fifty days.

Others keep a period of sixty days, since the sixtieth day signifies the grief of the Church for the absence of Her Spouse… so do they represent grief for the absence of the deceased person. And for their consolation, and the expiation of the soul of the dead, sacrifices offered to the Lord, and alms are distributed to the poor.

Some also keep the hundredth day, so that the dead may pass from the right to the left, from striving to triumph, from earth to heaven, from misery to glory, from death to life. For they long for them eternal blessedness, which is indicated by the 100th day.

Two folios of the Gellone Sacramentary, ca. 780 AD, showing Masses for the Dead. The Mass which begins on the bottom of the left side is that for the third, seventh and thirtieth days after death; the second prayer on the right side is for the anniversary Mass.

Now some others observe the anniversary for three reasons. First, so that the dead may come from the years of calamity to the years of eternity, or rather to eternal life which is without end, like a year which always returns to itself, and because there is sameness and no variety shall be found.

Second, because just as we celebrate the anniversary of the Saints for their honor and for our benefit… so also we celebrate the anniversary of the dead for their benefit and our devotion.

Third, the day of the anniversary is repeated for the dead for this reason, because according to Augustine, we do not know how it goes with them in the other life, and it is better that the benefit (of our prayers) be superfluous for them than that it be lacking (where needed.)

But if an anniversary falls on a Sunday or a solemnity, it ought not to be moved to the following day, as is done with the feasts of the Saints; but rather, it should be done on the preceding day, so that help may be given more quickly to the pains of the deceased which they bear in purgatory; for the dead need our help and benefit, the Saints do not.

The Feast of All Saints 2026

From the Breviary according to the use of the Roman Curia, 1529, the beginning of the sermon for the third day in the Octave of All Saints.

Today we venerate the memory of all the Saints in a single commemoration; in order that we may at least pay this service of our devout celebration to them all together, since on their individual birthdays (into Heaven), we cannot show them all their due honor in veneration, whether for the very multitude of the Saints, or our business about the needs of the body. For the Pope of the Apostolic See, Boniface, fourth from Saint Gregory and sixty-ninth from Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, taking occasion from the superstition of the gentiles, who kept this day as a solemnity in honor of all the gods, prudently discerning that the Roman people could scarcely be turned away by reason from evil customs that please the sensual appetite, piously converted to religion that which was instituted in deception; and having ask for the temple from the Emperor, turned the profane cult into a most salutary act of worship.

Solemn Mass celebrated in the traditional Ambrosian Rite in the Pantheon, May 2, 2010. The celebrant of this Mass, Monsignor Angelo Amodeo, a good friend of the NLM, passed away in 2012, on the fifth anniversary of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum; please remember him in your prayers especially tomorrow. Our own Nicola de’ Grandi is seen here serving as the MC, while the Mass was sung by the Schola Sainte Cécile, led by Henri de Villiers.

On the feast of All Saints and on each day of the Octave, the pre-Tridentine Roman Breviary has a sermon at Matins which tells the legend of the feast’s institution, and then gives 7 lessons on the Saints in the order of the hierarchy of Heaven: God, the Virgin Mary, the Angels, the Patriarchs and Prophets, the Apostles, the Martyrs and the Confessors. The last lesson is taken from a homily of St Augustine on the Gospel of the day, which is also read in the Breviary of St Pius V. The anonymous sermon assigned to the third day of the Octave, which we will follow this year, differs in one detail from those of the feast itself and the second day, which we read last year and the year before: the Virgins and other holy women are not mentioned along with the Virgin Mary.

Aña Angeli, Archángeli, Throni et Dominatiónes, Principátus et Potestátes, Virtútes caelórum, Chérubim atque Séraphim, Patriarchæ et Prophétæ, sancti legis Doctóres, Apóstoli, omnes Christi Mártyres, sancti Confessóres, Vírgines Dómini, Anachorítæ, Sanctíque omnes, intercédite pro nobis. – Angels, Archangels, Thrones and Dominions, Principalities and Powers, Virtues of the heavens, Cherubim and Seraphim, Patriarchs and Prophets, holy Doctors of the Law, Apostles, all Martyrs of Christ, holy Confessors, Virgins of the Lord, Hermits, and all Saints, intercede for us! (The antiphon of the Magnificat at First Vespers of All Saints, here set as a motet by the Flemish composer Heinrich Isaac (1450-1526))

The Vigil of All Saints 2026

In those days, behold I, John, saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing as it were slain, having seven horns and seven eyes: which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne. And when he had opened the book, the four living creatures, and the four and twenty ancients fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints: And they sung a new canticle, saying: Thou art worthy, O Lord, to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; because thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God, in thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation. And hast made us to our God a kingdom and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the living creatures, and the ancients; and the number of them was thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and benediction.” (Apocalypse 5, 6-12, the Epistle of the Mass of the vigil of All Saints. This part of the book, St John’s vision of God on His throne with the heavenly court and the Saints standing before Him, has long been a favorite source for artistic depictions of Heaven. This specific passage contains the first mention of Christ as “the Lamb that was slain”, and the book’s first occurrence of the word “Saints”.)

The Adoration of the Lamb, from the Gospel book known as the Codex Aureus of St Emmeram, 870 AD.

A Byzantine Church Consecration in Wyoming

We are very happy to share these pictures and videos from our friend Fr Philip Gilbert of the consecration of a new church for the Byzantine Catholic community in Cody, Wyoming, where he is currently serving. Our congratulations to him and all those who worship at the new church - many years! 

On October 18, Saint Luke Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Cody, Wyoming, celebrated not only its patronal feast, but also the consecration of its new church.

The community was established as a mission of St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy (Chicago) in 2023 at the request of local Ukrainian Catholics who desired to have a church of their own tradition. From that time, the community had the Liturgy with regularity, but with a local clubhouse and a storefront building as their church - spaces that are less than ideal for the liturgy. On the morning of Pascha (April 5), the announcement was made that very soon the community would take possession of a beautiful brick church building in the center of town. On June 14, the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the new space. Since that time, there have been a million little projects to arrange and decorate the space and make it ready for consecration and to turn it into a real church.

On Oct 18, Bishop Benedict solemnly consecrated the church, pronounced the decree of the mission’s establishment as a parish, and the appointment of the heretofore administrating priest as pastor. It is worth noting, that though this parish is part of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, it is a very American church: none of its parishioners are Ukrainian speakers and all of its services are conducted completely in English.

On Saturday, October 17, His Grace +Benedict, Bishop of Chicago (and the entire western US) was greeted at the doors of the church by the clergy, and then presided over the celebration of All Night Vigil (9th hour, festal vespers with lytia, matins, and 1st hour) which, despite the name, was only about four hours long. Those familiar with the Byzantine tradition may notice, and find it odd, that the entire service was celebrated without going through the iconostasis or entering the sanctuary. That is one of the peculiarities of the vigil for consecrating a church: since the sanctuary and altar are unconsecrated, the doors and curtain remain closed and the space is not used.

On Sunday morning the bishop was once again met at the doors of the church. Upon entering, he was solemnly vested in his episcopal vestments, the doors of the sanctuary were opened, and then the clergy entered the holy place and the consecration commenced. The first step is the “establishment of the holy table,” many parts of which are symbolic of the preparation of Christ’s body for burial. First, hot wax-mastic is poured on the posts of the altar, and the top is placed on it and permanently affixed by pounding in pegs or spikes with stones. The altar is washed with fragrant soap and water, wiped dry, and then anointed with wine, rosewater, and spikenard. After this, it is anointed with Holy Chrism and then vested: first in the white linen katasarka (the baptismal garment and burial shroud), which is permanently bound on with cord, then in the colored vestment fabrics we are accustomed to seeing. The antimension, holy Cross, Gospel, and 7-branch candlestick are placed on the altar, and then the entire church is incensed, sprinkled with holy water and anointed with Chrism.

Once the church and altar have been consecrated, the relics must be brought forth and placed in the altar. Normally, they would be kept in a nearby church, but in any case, they are retrieved and then led in procession three times around the church. After prayers before the exterior doors of the church, including the prayer of the Little Entrance, the relics are sealed in capsule and placed in the central pillar of the altar. Then, the Divine Liturgy is celebrated. (Some highlights of the ceremony from different points of view.)

After the Divine Liturgy, a festal procession was held in honor of the temple’s patronal feast, with a reading from the Gospel on each side of the church.

Another Word on St. Jude

Apropos of Gregory DiPippo’s post on the Legends of Saints Simon and Jude are these additional tidbits about the latter.

Saint Jude, who is also called “Thaddeus” (the Brave One) in the New Testament, was one of the original twelve Apostles and probably the brother of St. James the Less. It is also speculated that he was the nephew of St. Joseph and hence the legal cousin of Our Lord, one of those blessed few who were considered the “brethren” of Jesus (Matthew 13:55).

Jude is the author of the fifth-shortest book in the Bible and one of the seven “Catholic Epistles,” so called because they address a general audience and not a specific person or congregation (as do St. Paul’s letters). In his 461-word Epistle, Jude warns the faithful about false teachers who have infiltrated the Church and are spreading a loose morality that disregards the authority of apostolic tradition. This brief admonition is strongly worded and pulls no punches: it calls these false teachers “sensual men” and “grumbling murmurers” who are “clouds without water which are carried about by winds; trees of the autumn, unfruitful, twice dead plucked up the roots; [and] raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own confusion” (Jude 12).

Jude also mentions in his Epistle the curious detail that St. Michael the Archangel and the Devil fought over the remains of Moses and that rather than risk blasphemy, Michael said to Satan, “May the Lord rebuke thee” (Jude 9). Some speculate that the Devil had wanted Moses’ body to be given a grand monument to tempt the Hebrews into idolatry, but Michael hid it instead, and it has remained hidden ever since.

Little is known of what happened to Saint Jude after the first Pentecost. He is believed to have preached the Gospel first in Mesopotamia and then in Persia, where he teamed up with Saint Simon and “begot numerous children to Jesus Christ and spread the faith among the barbarous inhabitants of that vast region” before suffering martyrdom. According to an Armenian tradition, however, Saints Jude and Bartholomew introduced the faith to that nation; the ancient Monastery of Saint Thaddeus in northern Iran was once a part of Greater Armenia.

Saint Thaddeus Monastery, Qareh Kelisa, Iran

Understandably, Jude is a patron of Armenia, but he is most famous for being the patron saint of desperate or hopeless causes, possibly because his name was so similar to that of the traitor Judas Iscariot that people would not pray to the “forgotten apostle” unless all else had failed! The patronage itself is relatively recent, dating back to 1929 when a Father James Tort encouraged the devotion among his parishioners in southeast Chicago, most of whom were laid-off steelworkers. The devotion grew rapidly; on the final night of a solemn novena held on St. Jude’s feast, there was an overflow crowd outside the church. The next day, the stock market crashed, and soon more Americans were turning to St. Jude during the Great Depression and World War II.

Fr. James Tort in front of a statue of St. Jude

Father Tort also organized the Police Branch of the League of St. Jude in 1932; to this day Jude is the official patron of the Chicago Police Department. And because, we conjecture, many a person feels desperate or hopeless when hospitalized, Jude is also the patron of hospital workers and the hospitalized.

For Jude’s current popularity we can also thank a Maronite Catholic named Amos Muzyad Yaqoob Kairouz, better known as the actor and entertainer Danny Thomas. Thomas was down on his luck when he remembered how a stagehand had praised St. Jude for miraculously curing his wife of cancer. A devout Catholic who went to Sunday 6:00 a.m. Mass on his way home from performing all night in a club, Thomas prayed to St. Jude and promised him that he would do “something big” if St. Jude helped him out. Jude kept his end of the bargain, and so did Thomas, founding the world-famous St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee in 1962. It was the first fully integrated hospital in the American South, and it has gone on to transform the treatment of child cancer around the world. Thanks in part to the physicians and scientists of St. Jude, the overall survival rates for childhood cancers have gone from 20% when the hospital opened to 80% today. “Help me find my way in life,” Danny Thomas had prayed to St. Jude, “and I will build you a shrine.” Thanks to Thomas’ gratitude and the patronage of the forgotten apostle, some hopeless causes are looking less hopeless.

Axios Men’s Ensemble Concert Tour of Benedict Sheehan’s Ukrainian War Requiem

In 2022, the Axios Men’s Ensemble commissioned Benedict Sheehan, a three-time Grammy award nominee, to compose a memorial in response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, entitled Ukrainian War Requiem. This war, which began in 2014 and escalated into a full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, has tragically claimed countless lives. This music is a solemn tribute to these victims. This November, from the 6th to the 15th, the Ensemble will bring the Requiem on a concert tour to nine locations across Canada.

Earlier this year, the Axios Men’s Ensemble was awarded Canada’s highest musical honour – a JUNO Award for the Classical Album of the Year (Large Ensemble) for the recording of the Ukrainian War Requiem. This marks the first time in JUNO Awards history that an a cappella recording has earned this distinction in the category.

Sheehan’s composition, spanning 12 movements, draws inspiration primarily from the Byzantine burial service, a ritual shared by Eastern Catholic and Orthodox churches. Reflecting Ukraine’s diverse linguistic and religious landscape, the Requiem also weaves in elements from Jewish and Roman Catholic traditions. These varied texts serve multiple purposes: they offer solace and strength to the living, especially those grieving; they provide a space for praying for both victims and aggressors; and they ultimately aspire to convey hope, peace, and goodwill.

It is an expansive and sublime piece (already reviewed by Thomas Neal here on NLM!) that skillfully blends modern musical styles with traditional Ukrainian motifs and ancient chants. This arrangement not only reflects the harsh realities of war but also echoes humanity’s deep-seated longing for peace, goodness, truth, and beauty.

Featuring over 50 performers, the ensemble brings together members of the Axios Men’s Ensemble, Pro Coro Canada, and select soloists from North America, Europe, and Ukraine. The performance will be conducted by Maestro Michael Zaugg.

This Requiem is more than just music. It is a reverent homage to those affected by the war, a reminder of the enduring human spirit, and a heartfelt tribute to Ukraine and her people.

Tickets are available at www.axiosmensensemble.com

The Legends of Saints Simon and Jude

In the Breviary of St Pius V, the lives of the Apostles Simon and Jude are summed up in a single lesson of fewer than sixty words. It is noted that St Simon was called “the Chananean, also the Zealot”; the term “Chananean” was thought by some of the Church Fathers to refer to Cana of Galilee, where the Lord turned water into wine, but it is simply a hellenization of the Hebrew word “qanna’i – zealous.” St Thaddeus, more often called Jude, was the author of one of the seven Catholic Epistles. After the Ascension, the former went to evangelize Egypt, the latter to Mesopotamia; they later met in Persia, where they continued to preach the Gospel, and were eventually martyred.

The pre-Tridentine Roman Breviary, on the other hand, gives a much more elaborate account of their lives after the Lord’s Ascension. St Simon is said to have preached the Gospel in many places, which are not specifically named. When St James the Less was killed in 62 A.D., Simon was chosen by the other Apostles to succeed him as bishop of Jerusalem. Having governed the mother church of Christianity for many years, and reached the age of one-hundred and twenty, he was tortured and crucified under the Emperor Trajan. In reality, these stories derive from the life of a different saint with a similar name, Symeon of Jerusalem, who is mentioned by Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 260-340) in the third book of his Ecclesiastical History.

Chapter 11. After the martyrdom of James and the conquest of Jerusalem … it is said that those of the Apostles and disciples of the Lord that were still living came together from all directions with those that were related to the Lord according to the flesh … to take counsel as to who was worthy to succeed James. They all with one consent pronounced Symeon, the son of Clopas, of whom the Gospel also makes mention, to be worthy of the episcopal throne … He was a cousin, as they say, of the Savior; for Hegesippus records that Clopas was a brother of Joseph.

Chapter 32. (Citing Hegesippus again) Speaking of certain heretics, he adds that Symeon was accused by them at this time; and since it was clear that he was a Christian, he was tortured in various ways for many days, and astonished even the judge himself and his attendants in the highest degree, and finally he suffered a death similar to that of our Lord. But there is nothing like hearing the historian himself, who writes as follows: “Certain of these heretics brought accusation against Symeon, the son of Clopas, on the ground that he was a descendant of David and a Christian; and thus he suffered martyrdom, at the age of one hundred and twenty years, while Trajan was emperor and Atticus governor. … And after being tortured for many days he suffered martyrdom, and all, including even the proconsul, marveled that, at the age of one hundred and twenty years, he could endure so much. And orders were given that he should be crucified.”

The Martyrdom of Saints Simon and Jude

In his famous Golden Legend, Bl. Jacopo de Voragine writes that the confusion between Symeon of Jerusalem and the Apostle Simon was noted by Eusebius, St Isidore and Bede the Venerable. In the Tridentine reform of the Breviary, therefore, the error was corrected; the story of St Symeon of Jerusalem was detached from that of the Apostle, and he was given his own feast day on February 18.

In each of the Synoptic Gospels, when the Evangelists give the names of the Twelve Apostles, Simon and Jude appear together at the end of the list, right before Judas Iscariot; Ss Matthew (chapter 10) and Mark (chapter 3) give the name of the latter as Thaddeus, but St Luke (chapter 6) calls him Jude. St John does not give a list of the names of the Twelve, but recounts in chapter 14 that Jude “not the Iscariot” at the Last Supper asked Christ, “Lord, how is it, that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not to the world?” It is with the name Thaddeus that he is mentioned in the Communicantes of the Roman Canon, and by this name he also came to be associated with one of the most beloved stories of the Christian tradition, the legend of King Abgar, and the painting of the Holy Face of Edessa.

The Holy Face of Edessa, often called the Mandylion from the Syriac word for the cloth on which the image was made.

As recorded by Eusebius in the Ecclesiastical History (I. 13), King Abgar of Edessa suffered from an incurable disease of some kind; having heard of the many healings wrought by the Lord during His earthly ministry, he sent Him a letter asking Him to come to Edessa and heal him. The Lord replied by letter that He would not come personally, but that after His Resurrection, one of His disciples would be sent to cure him; and in due time, the Apostle Thomas sent one of the seventy disciples, a certain Thaddeus, to perform this office. Eusebius gives what purport to be the texts of the two letters, which were kept, he claims, in the public archives at Edessa. The story is repeated in a much more elaborate form in an early fifth-century apocryphal work, “The Doctrine of Addai,” in which the name of the disciple sent to King Abgar appears as Addai, rather than Thaddeus.

By the late fifth-century, the so-called Gelasian decree, in the section “on books to be received and not to be received”, (i.e., which may be used in the liturgy), already notes the spurious character of the letters exchanged between Christ and King Abgar. (The decree itself would later be spuriously attributed to Pope Gelasius I, and is commonly called after him.) As is the case with many apocryphal writings, formal rejection did not in the least diminish the popularity of the story, which continued to be embellished in various ways. The Doctrine of Addai simply adds that Abgar’s messenger made a picture of Christ’s face to bring back to the King; by the Bl. Jacopo’s time, the legend states that on receiving the reply of Christ, King Abgar sent a painter to make an image of the Lord’s Face on a piece of cloth. The painter was unable to do this himself, however, “because of the exceeding brightness that came forth from His face”; the Lord Himself therefore took the cloth and laid it over His own face, leaving an impression of the image upon the cloth, which was then taken to Abgar. Among Byzantine Christians especially, the Holy Face of Christ is still to this day the object of great veneration; it is known as the Holy Mandylion, a word which derives from the Syriac “mandil – a cloth.” Although Eusebius clearly says that the Thaddeus of the Abgar legend is one of the seventy disciples, and not one of the twelve Apostles, the Golden Legend and the Roman Breviary of 1529 both identify him with the Apostle called Thaddeus in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and Jude in those of Luke and John. Because of the association with the King Abgar legend, he is sometimes shown holding an image of the Lord’s face.

In modern times, a new devotion has emerged to Saint Jude as the Patron Saint of Lost Causes, the origins of which are quite obscure. There are many variations of the following prayer to ask for his intercession, and it is still a fairly common custom to thank the Saint publicly for his intercession by placing a message of thanksgiving in a newspaper.

Oh glorious Apostle St Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the name of the traitor who delivered thy beloved Master into the hands of His enemies has caused thee to be forgotten by many, but the Church honors and invokes thee universally as the patron of hopeless cases--of things despaired of. Pray for me who am so miserable; make use, I implore thee, of that particular privilege accorded thee of bringing visible and speedy help where help is almost despaired of. Come to my assistance in this great need, that I may receive the consolations and succor of heaven in all my necessities, tribulations and sufferings, particularly (mention your request), and that I may bless God with thee and all the elect throughout eternity. I promise thee, O blessed St Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favor, and I will never cease to honor thee as my special and powerful patron, and to do all in my power to encourage devotion to thee. Amen.

Follow-up on Disposing of Candle Wax

On June 28, 2021, I posted an article at NLM entitled “Piously Discarding Blessed Wax: A Quodlibetal Question,” and presented a few viewpoints about what should be done with stubs and scraps from blessed candles. May they be thrown away like other debris, or must they be melted down, burned down, buried, or left on the earth like other blessed objects?

At the time, I offered various arguments on both sides, but then put my backing behind a response given to me by a Dominican priest and Thomist, saying that such candle bits should be treated in a special way.

After thinking about this for some time, I have come to agree with those in the comments who disputed this answer (the comments back then on NLM were of high quality; sadly, almost no one comments anymore, and I realize that is because comboxes have seen their day; yet I maintain they are more useful than social media comments because the latter are almost impossible to find after a while, whereas the comments attached to a blog post are right there where you need them).

Here is my reasoning: the wax remnants, once they are no longer a candle in form and no longer capable of serving as a candle, have lost what is required to be a candle, and so the blessing of candles does not “hold,” even as (to use a much grander example) the Real Presence ceases the moment the accidents of bread and wine are corrupted in the one who consumes them. When the species can no longer be recognized as bread and wine, no Real Presence under those species is possible. Similarly, when the species (the appearance and function) of a candle is not there, there is no candle left.

The blessing of the wax as mentioned in certain prayers is not a blessing of the material only, but of the material as formed into a certain instrument for glorifying God or honoring the saints. This is the common-sense point of view.

By the way, nothing beats the irreverence I once saw at a shrine in Greece where an employee, who seemed slightly irritated to be working there, came in every so often and simply threw out all the candles that pilgrims had lit, sometimes minutes before, to make room for new candles. There was money to be made – forget about the pious intentions of those who paid 2 Euros for a candle that would burn before the icons! Probably those candles had not been specially blessed, but it was still one of the most unedifying sights I’ve ever seen.

It seems different with objects that, though damaged, retain enough of their form to be recognizably the same thing and perhaps even partly useful for their purpose. For example, a crucifix with a broken arm, or with the corpus detached from the cross, may not be acceptable for mounting in a church or at home, but it remains a crucifix and should be discarded by burning or burying. Similarly, a rosary that has fallen apart into segments and can still be repaired should still be treated as a rosary; but when it falls apart beyond repair or when no repair is intended, it should be buried. It is quite different with wax scraps, which have no more than their bare material in common with functional candles.

Nevertheless, there is of course nothing wrong with burning the extra wax in a bonfire (it makes the fire go stronger), and if it’s beeswax, it should be recycled into new candles given the value and quality of the material.