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Saints Important to Artists

The following saints and blesseds are of Special interest to Artists.

Saint Luke, Patron of Artists

St. Luke the Evangelist has long been the patron saint of Artists. Known as a Physician and traveling compantion of Paul, he is also thought that he was an icon painter, and painted the first pictures of the Virgin Mary and Child. He is especially associated with the Hodegetria image in Constantinople. He was with Paul during his final years of Romand is also said to have was painted Saints Peter and Paul. His feast day is October 18.

Guilds of St Luke in the cities of late Medieval Europe were formed to protect painters, sculptors, and illuminators.

Left: Saint Luke Painting the Virgin by Roger Van Der Weyden, 1435

Saint Catherine of Bologna, Patron of Artists

St. Catherine of Bologna was the Abbess of a Poor Clare convent in Bologna. She lived during the Early Renaissance period in Italy and was known as a writer and artist. Her most well known writing was a Treatise on the Seven Spiritual Weapons Necessary for Spiritual Warfare, and several of her paintings, including one of the Madonna, and one of St. Ursula have survived. Her feast day is March 9.

From Left: Catherine of Bologna with three donors, unknown artist, 1480; Madonna and child by Catherine of Bologna, ~1450.

Four Crowned Martyrs, Patrons of Sculptors

The Four Crowned Martyrs were Sculptors and stonemasons in the Roman city of Sirmium (near Modern Belgrade in Serbia). They refused to fashion a pagan statue for the Emperor Diocletian or to offer sacrifice to the Roman gods so in 287 the Emperor ordered them to be placed alive in lead coffins and thrown into the river Save. The names of the martyrs were given as Claudius, Castorius, Symphorian and Nicostratus. Their feast day is November 8.

Four Crowned Martyrs by Nani di Banco, 1412.

St. John Damascene, Doctor of the Church

Saint John of Damascus was the last Greek Fathers of the Church, and is known for his defense of Holy Images during the Iconoclast crisis of the 8th century. In 726, the Byzantine Emperor Leo III outlawed the veneration of icons, likely in reaction to the recent conquest of much of Syria by Moslem armies. Superstition that the conquest was a judgment of God on Christians for worshipping idols swept through the region and inspired a wave of destruction of statues and holy images throughout the empire.

John of Damascus was a Syrian monk and before his ordination had worked for as an administrator for the Caliph. From his monastery he wrote three Discourses against those who calumniate the Holy Images, arguing that the prohibition against making an image of God had been fulfilled in the Incarnation. He made a clear distinction between worship and veneration, and insisted in the good of beauty and material things.

Blessed Fra Angelico

Fra Angelico was one of the most important artists of the early Renaissance. Based in Florence, he was pious Dominican Friar who is known for beautiful paintings on walls of chapels, cloisters, and Monastery of San Marco. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1982.

Leftmost: Fra Angelico from Preaching of the Antichrist by Signorelli, 1500.

Left: St. Benedict by Fra Angelico, ~1450.