Charlotte Ostermann

I write, speak, invest, network, and question to stimulate fruitful conversation. Let's talk about human flourishing! It begins with freedom. Holy leisure is the key to human being, freedom and generativity.  Please join me in the adventure of realizing Christ!

  • Catholic Speaker
    • About Me
      • Speaker Bio
    • My Talks
    • Events
    • Testimonials
    • Media Kit
      • Topics for Podcasts & Talk Shows
      • Audio & Video Samples
        • Events
  • Catholic Author
    • Books
    • My Poetry
    • Motherheart Press
  • Catholic Contributor
  • Catholic Creative
    • My Projects
      • News
    • Welcome to Bright City
    • Support for Art and Artists – Not as Expensive as You Think!
    • Talks for Writers and Artists
    • The JOY Foundation of Kansas
  • Catholic Poet
    • My Poetry
  • Catholic Educator
    • My Reading
    • Talks for Parent Educators
    • Talks for High School & College Students
    • Talks for Book Study Groups
  • Contact Me
  • My Blog
You are here: Home / About Art / St. Francis Altar

By charlotte ostermann

St. Francis Altar

berlingheri st. francisBerlinghieri’s St. Francis  appears behind the altar of San Francesco in Pescia, Italy. It is an excellent example of art ordered to divine worship.

First, the Catechism instructs us in choosing sacred, or liturgical art, that such art is appropriate if it principally represents Christ (CCC 1159), expresses the same Gospel message as Scripture (CCC 1160), glorifies Christ through the representation of individual saints who have, in Him, revealed man as an image or likeness of God (CCC 1161), and moves us to contemplation in harmony with the Word of God and hymns of the Liturgy (CCC 1162). This image of St. Francis answers to its high calling at every point.

St. Francis’ miraculous reception of the stigmata – participation in the very wounds of Christ – is represented in both the central and in a side image which emphasizes his perfect receptivity to the will of God. Scripture’s injunctions to serve the poor (Proverbs 19:17, Acts 20:35, and many more) and neglect not good works (1 John 3: 17-18, James 2:14-26) are evoked in three side panels, in which St. Francis humbly serves the poor. St. Francis, casting out the demons of Arezzo, as depicted in another side panel, is the very image of Christ glorified and of man raised to share in Christ’s own dominion over the angelic realm. (Hebrews 1:4, Lk 10:17-19, Eph 2:6, Mt 10:1, Mk 3:14)

The image of St. Francis preaching to the birds on the left of the central figure leads us to contemplation of Christ’s Redemption of all Creation through His restoration of mankind (Romans 8:19-22) and reminds us of St. Francis’ own hymn of Creation – the Canticle that praises God in all created things in a voice that is reminiscent of the Liturgy of the Hours, where Daniel’s canticle of praise is so frequently featured (Daniel 3:57-88). This small moment in the life of the saint, offered, literally, ‘on the altar of Christ’ in union with the Sacrifice and Resurrection in which all things are redeemed and restored, is lifted to its true significance. Every aspect of St. Francis’ life is shown here in its true light – as offered to Christ – and thus illuminates the sense in which every believer brings the offering of his own being to God in the celebration of each Mass. “The presentation of the offerings at the altar takes up the gesture of Melchizedek and commits the Creator’s gifts into the hands of Christ who, in his sacrifice, brings to perfection all human attempts to offer sacrifices.” (CCC 1350)

Turning to the criteria given by Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI) in The Spirit of the Liturgy, we are further confirmed in our sense that this painting is an exemplary piece of liturgical art. The Cardinal’s five principles are:

1) “Images of beauty, in which the mystery of the invisible God becomes visible, are an essential part of Christian worship.” 2) Images of salvation history, from the Bible and from the history of the saints “have pride of place in sacred art.” 3)Sacred images must point to “the inner unity of God’s action” and “to the sacraments,” and emphasize the Paschal Mystery, inasmuch as Christ is represented, in three aspects: Christ Crucified, Risen, and as “the One who will come again and who her and now hiddenly reigns over all.” 4) Sacred art must be the fruit of contemplation and prayer “undertaken in communion with the seeing faith of the Church.” and 5) Sacred art must not (indeed, cannot) come “from an isolated subjectivity,” but emerges from the submission, by the artist, of his skill and freedom to “the logos of things” – reality as understood through the norms and doctrines of the Church, as opposed to that which is merely apprehensible to the senses. The inward formation of the artist by the Church, and his openness “to the ‘we’” of the Body of Christ protects his work from “imprisoning man” in art that does not do justice to the fullness of Truth.

The St. Francis altarpiece, again, gets high marks for liturgical use according to Cardinal Ratzinger’s criteria. Offering, as it does, beautiful images from the life of a saint, and as far as a viewer can tell, painted by an artist who is prayerfully formed by and submissive to received Catholic doctrine, this painting succeeds on the (perhaps most important) level of pointing to the Paschal Mystery. Though it is not an icon of Christ himself, the painting evokes the Passion through the stigmata of St. Francis, the Risen Christ through the Saint’s ministry to the poor, and the glorified Christ in the two images of Creation fulfilled in Christ’s perfect dominion: the birds’ docility toward, and the flight of demons at the Word of God. The Holy Bible in St. Francis’ hands (the ‘logos of things’ per Cardinal Ratzinger) speaks of his and of the artist’s sense of the primacy of the Word of God, as revealed in Scripture. The full deposit of Faith – the unity of these Scriptures with the Tradition of the Church of Christ – is made explicit by the juxtaposition of the Bible with the wound-marked hand of St. Francis.

The concern of the artist for the ecclesial ‘we’ is evident in his invitation to the congregation to place their gifts on the altar, following the example of St. Francis, whose life and works – like ours – makes sense only in the position of an offering to Christ, and in his placement of St. Francis’ vows of poverty, chastity and obedience (symbolized by the three knots of his rope girdle) directly in line with the elevation of the Host.  Maryvale’s Art, Beauty and Inspiration coursebook teaches that, “Paintings for altar pieces receive their full meaning, sense and purpose, then, not from what is depicted, but from the celebration of Mass….One way of discerning whether a painting may have been an altar piece is to see what is placed in the centre-front area of the painting. This is an extremely important part of a painting. For an altar piece it may be left relatively empty because of the head and shoulders of the priest standing here before it, and, of course, because of the elevation of the sacred host at the consecration.” (Module 2 Coursebook, pg.75)

If we ask the question, as suggested, “…into or towards what, in the painting, is the host being elevated?” we find the further element of liturgical action has been accommodated by Berlinghieri in this painting. It’s as though, at the elevation of the Blessed Sacrament, this entire piece would come to life. In the person of Christ, we believers are raised up through the chastity, poverty, and obedience of discipleship toward the sanctity of sainthood, and toward participation in the redemptive suffering of Christ. In the unity of received doctrine – the revelation of the Word of God – we are formed into His very Body for the sake of the coming of the Kingdom into this world – through our receptivity to Him, our proclamation of His message, and our works.

Clearly, this artist aims to raise our sites toward an eternal destiny that is not limited to what we can apprehend through our natural senses. He accomplishes well the task of creating art that truly serves the Liturgy, and by extension operates to draw all men toward Christ.

Related

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: About Art Tagged With: Berllinghieri, Pope Benedict, St. Francis. liturgy

Free for You: Motherheart Collection

Upschooling

Souls at Rest: An Exploration of the Eucharistic Sabbath

Souls At Work: An Invitation to Freedom

DARE YOUR SOMETHING!

JOY! JOY! JOY!

Do You Need a Speaker?

  • My Talks
  • Three-Part Retreats
  • Audio & Video Samples
  • Poetry Workshops

Talks for Writers and Artists

Talks for Spiritual Retreats

Talks for Parent Educators

Talks for Women

Talks for High School & College Students

Talks for Writers and Artists

Blogging About My Talks

Building the Bridge

This is my most-requested audio – about how we can educate our children well, despite our own inadequacies. The Problem – We must get kids from where they are, to where they need to be; from ‘uneducated’ to ‘educated’. Given the poverty of our own education, we feel asked to do the impossible: build a […]

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Putting Down Sabbath Roots

Some audiences want to cut right to the chase: “Give us practical applications of all your ideas about Sabbath-keeping.” OK – here you go: In this talk I do just that – give concrete, practical ways to dip into the kind of leisure that brings  interior equanimity and leaves you more whole, more human, more […]

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Women on the Way to Healing

I prepared this talk for the Heart of a Woman group, in Kansas City, shortly after the suicide of a Catholic mother of ten. It was a shock to me, but not entirely unexpected, as I had known her during the years she struggled with depression and disintegration, despite her devotion to the Church, Christ, […]

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

High Resolution Beauty

For an Apostles of the Interior Life Women’s Retreat, where the theme was “The King Desires Your Beauty,”  I prepared this truly interesting talk. Will you believe me when I say that this is another of my favorites?!?! I know, I’ve said that about a  lot of these talks, but revisiting them to give a […]

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Sabbath is a Woman

I once asked a friend who calls herself a Jewish-Catholic if it had been hard for her to accept Mary’s role in Salvation History. She laughed and said, “Heck no! Every Sabbath was begun by a Jewish mama’s prayers! I’d have been suspicious if Lord Sabbaoth hadn’t come through a woman.” Jewish women welcomed Sabbath […]

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

The Veiled Self

Differences between the original myth of Cupid and Psyche, and C.S. Lewis’ retelling of the myth in Till We Have Faces have the effect of revealing new dimensionality in the Christian understanding of both myth and of the human person. The pre-Christian myth, like the pre-Christian person, is veiled in a darkness that constitutes a […]

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

More Posts About My Talks

Explore Posts by Category:

Search this site:

About a Landscape

In “Stour Valley and Dedham Church”  Constable has painted the Vale of Dedham – a familiar and beloved area of his native England.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

A Merry Drinker

 “The Merry Drinker,” by Frans Hals This is a portrait of an unnamed man, called in the title only ‘a merry drinker’.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

A Wedding Feast

Giotto’s painting, The Wedding Feast at Cana, portrays the literal and spiritual senses of this story.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

St. Francis Altar

Berlinghieri’s St. Francis  appears behind the altar of San Francesco in Pescia, Italy. It is an excellent example of art ordered to divine worship.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

More Posts About Art

Tags

art artist Beauty Brick capacity Catholic Chesterton Christ Church communication community conversation creativity culture dialogue Education evangelization form formation freedom friendship fun healing Homemaking imagination intellectual life interior life leisure love motherhood Parenting person Personhood play Poetry prayer reading reality response Sabbath senses unity Women work writing

I’m a Member:

Family – Apostles of the Interior LIfe

Communion & Liberation

Association of Catholic Women Bloggers

Catholic Writers Guild

Catholic Creatives Salon

Northeast KS Chesterton Society

Sursum Corda Polyphony Ensemble

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center

Friends of Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum

Well Read Mom

The Table – Christian Writers in Conversation

A is for Atmosphere

A mom is the caretaker of a huge, wonderful, potentially beautiful, critically important place! She, herself, this actual, unique person, is the single most important ‘environment’ in the lives of her children. Like Mary, like the Church, she is an atmosphere. She is an atmosphere of affection. This is not just warm, fuzzy feelings, but […]

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Three-Dimensional Transcendentals

Benedictine College hosted a Symposium for Advancing the New Evangelization in 2014. The theme was Transcendentals as Preambles to Faith, and I got to propose my take on that as a paper. Anyone who knows me could probably have bet good money I’d do something ‘three dimensional’ with that, and they’d have won those bets. […]

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

A Prayer, A Poem, A Person, A Place

I once got a chance to do an all-day retreat with one of the sister Apostles of the Interior Life. Naturally, I wanted to discuss the role of leisure in the formation of persons! As usual, I prayed about the upcoming event, and God brought together several threads of my contemplation to weave this talk. […]

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Living Poems

Did you know YOU are a poem? Check out Ephesians 2:10, where the Greek ‘poema’ is usually translated ‘workmanship’. I like ‘poema’ better, as it implies beauty and artistry, but ‘workmanship’ is nice. I’ve discussed the importance of poetry, poetic education, poetic imagination and poetic reading in many different venues (many of the talk topics […]

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

More Posts About Education

  • Charlotte Ostermann on Creativity
  • What About Gaudi?
  • Enchanted Education
  • Poetry Workshops
  • Stratford Caldecott Bibliography
  • Welcome to Bright City

Copyright © 2023 · Executive Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.

    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.