Our long-time contributor Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P., has another interesting project going on, in addition to his new book, which Peter wrote about last week. This is a series on British EWTN called “Through My Lens”, in which Father Lew shares his traveling experiences, and shows many of the wonderful photographs he takes of the places he visits. The first episode is about the Italian town of Orvieto, a place which is especially important for Dominicans. From 1261-4, St Thomas Aquinas lived and lectured in the Dominican house there, while Pope Urban IV and his court were sojourning in the city. This was the period when Thomas completed the Summa contra gentiles, and wrote the Catena Aurea, the Office and Mass of Corpus Christi, and the Contra errores graecorum.
In 1447, another famous Dominican, the painter Fra Angelico (1395 ca. - 1455), was commissioned to decorate a large chapel attached to the cathedral of Orvieto, along with his assistant Benozzo Gozzoli. This commission was interrupted when the artists were called away to Rome by Pope Nicholas V, and the project was not finished until about 50 years later, but Angelico and Gozzoli did leave behind two completed sections of the ceiling vault. Here is one of them, of Christ in Majesty at the Last Judgment, photographed by Fr Lew. Fra Angelico was beatified by Pope St John Paul II in 1982; today is the anniversary of his death in 1455, and his feast day.
