 The new Eucharistic St Padre Pio icon is based on a well circulated, historical photograph. Yes! St Padre Pio is recognized instantly by his admirers and this presented a challenge for me. How to proceed? It was important to capture his appearance in a meaningful way while moving the presentation into a more ideal, Western style icon translation. And ... that it be devotionally appropriate for a priest. Pictured in the gallery below are books and other sources read while painting the icon, off and on, over the course of several busy months. It was a time for me to be awed and not a little bit intimated by the greatness of this saint. Too, there is a Padre Pio novena chaplet that has been circulating for many years and I was delighted to locate one, complete with the beads, in a church free bin during this time. What luck (or I should say providence!). It is said that Padre Pio prayed it daily and in that small way I did the same (and still do).  The completed St Padre Pio icon was commissioned and recently gifted to a priest in gratitude for his service to a particularly active youth ministry/organization. The kind follow-up note from the group gave me joy: "....He absolutely loved it! Said it would be a treasured possession of his forever."  Priest holding the gift. Although not shown here, he has a big big smile on his face. Comments are closed.
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"...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things." St Paul
A Post a Month
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