From: rich <
richarra@gmail.com>
18 February =E2=80=93 Blessed FRA ANGELICO
(1395-1455 aged 59) =E2=80=93 Patron of Artists.
Fra Angelico was an Early Italian Renaissance painter described by
Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having =E2=80=9Ca rare and perfect talent=E2=80=9D.
He was known to contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (Brother
John of Fiesole) and Fra Giovanni Angelico (Angelic Brother John). In
modern Italian he is called il Beato Angelico (Blessed Angelic One);
the common English name Fra Angelico means the =E2=80=9CAngelic friar=E2=80= =9D.
In 1982 Pope John Paul II proclaimed his beatification in recognition
of the holiness of his life, thereby making the title of =E2=80=9CBlessed= =E2=80=9D
official. Fiesole is sometimes misinterpreted as being part of his
formal name, but it was merely the name of the town where he took his
vows as a Dominican friar and was used by contemporaries to separate
him from others who were also known as Fra Giovanni. He is listed in
the Roman Martyrology as Beatus Ioannes Faesulanus, cognomento Angelicus=E2=80=94=E2=80=9DBlessed Giovanni of Fiesole, surnamed =E2=80=98t=
he Angelic' ".
Fra Angelico is probably better known as an artist than as a holy man.
He was already called =E2=80=9CBeato=E2=80=9D while he was still alive. Pop=
e John Paul
II gave this a new reality when he beatified him in 1982. Patrick
Duffy tells his story.
Early life
Born Guido di Pietro at Vicchio, 25 kms north-east of Florence, also
the birthplace of Giotto, in his childhood he was known as Guido da
Vicchio or Guido di Pietro. He may have been already a painter before
he and his brother Benedetto joined the Dominicans at Fiesole.
After his novitiate at Cortona he went to live at the Dominican
convent at Fiesole. As a young friar, he worked at illuminating
missals and manuscripts. He became known to his companions as Fra
Giovanni da Fiesole but later more popularly =E2=80=93 even within his own lifetime in Italy =E2=80=93 he was called Il Beato Angelico.
In 1436 Fra Angelico was one of a number of the monks from Fiesole who
moved into the newly-built monastery of San Marco in Florence. This
not only put him in the centre of artistic activity but also engaged
the patronage of the wealthy and powerful Cosimo de' Medici, who of=
ten
came there himself when he wanted to retreat from the world.
According to his biographer Giorgio Vasari (1511-74), it was at
Cosimo's urging that Fra Angelico undertook the task of decorating =
the
monastery, including the magnificent Chapter House fresco, the
often-reproduced Annunciation, the Maesta with Saints Cosmas and
Damian, Saint Mark and Saint John, Saint Lawrence and three
Dominicans, Saint Dominic, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Peter
Martyr.
In 1445 Pope Eugenius IV (1431-47), who knew
the artist's work in Florence, summoned Angelico to Rome to paint t=
he
frescoes of the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament at St Peter's but this
was destroyed a century later when Pope Paul III (Alessandro Farnese
1534-49) wanted to make room for the great staircase of the Vatican
Palace. Vasari says that at this time Eugenius offered Fra Angelico
the archbishopric of Florence, but that he refused it, recommending
another friar for the position.
In 1447 when the papal court moved to the comparative cool of Orvieto
Fra Angelico worked with his pupil, Benozzo Gozzoli, on the vault of
the chapel of the Madonna of St Brizio in the cathedral.
In 1449 back at the Vatican, he designed the famous fresco scenes from
the lives of St. Laurence and St. Stephen for the walls of the Chapel
of Nicholas V. From 1449 until 1452, Fra Angelico was back at San
Marco in Florence, where he was prior for three years.
The Transfiguration shows the directness, simplicity and restrained
palette typical of these frescoes. Located in a monk's cell at the
Convent San' Marco, its apparent purpose is to encourage private
devotion.
Death and influence
In 1455 Fra Angelico died while staying at a Dominican Convent in
Rome, perhaps working on Pope Nicholas' Chapel. His tomb can be see=
n
in the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in the centre of Rome. And
this is his epitaph:
When singing my praise, do not say I was another Apelles.
But say that, in the name of Christ, I gave all I had to the poor.
Part of my work remains on earth and part is in heaven.
The city that bore me, Giovanni, is the flower of Tuscany.
https://anastpaul.com/2017/02/18/
Saint Quote:
The less we have here, the more shall we enjoy in God's Kingdom, where
the mansion of each is proportioned to the love with which he shall
have imitated Jesus Christ.
-- St. Teresa
Bible Quote:
But the soul that committeth any thing through pride, whether he be
born in the land or a stranger (because he hath been rebellious
against the Lord) shall be cut off from among his people:=C2 (Numbers
15:30)
<><><><>
WHAT MUST WE DO?
St. Paul tells us that we must do all we do, whether in word or work,
in the Name of Jesus. "All whatsoever you do in word or in work, do
all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ..."=C2 (Col 3:17).
In this way, every act becomes an act of love and of merit, and
moreover, we receive grace and help to do all our actions perfectly
and well.
We must therefore do our best to form the habit of saying, "Jesus,
Jesus, Jesus," very often every day. We can do so when dressing, when working--no matter what we are doing--when walking, in moments of
sadness, at home and in the street, everywhere.
Nothing is easier if only we do it methodically.=C2 We can say it
countless times every day.
Bear in mind that each time we say, "Jesus," devoutly:
1. we give God great glory,
2. we receive great graces for ourselves,
3. and we help the souls in Purgatory.
--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
* Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)