ICON ART AT VISITATION

Artist: Frank T. Kacmarcik (before he became a Brother)

An icon (Greek word meaning “image”) is a painted or carved image used in Christian devotion. In the early church icons were the subject of a long and bloody controversy and many were destroyed (iconoclasm). Their veneration was ratified at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 when they asserted that icons were objects of veneration and not of worship or idolatry and condemned the iconoclasts who destroyed icons. Holy icons are more than just sacred art; they express in visual form the central doctrines of the faith. In a society that was largely illiterate they served as the major teaching tool of Church faith. They are created as an act of loving religious devotion with prayer and spiritual preparation and in conformity with a strict tradition in their presentation.

The Main Altar Triptych

This is of the Visitation scene (name of our parish) between Mary and her cousin Elizabeth. The quote, “Beata Quae Credidisti” means, “Blessed are you because you have believed.” It recognizes Mary for her great trust in God. Her faith is a summation of what God expects from us. Elizabeth gave verbal expression of God’s power when she said: “Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of they womb.” God’s revelation was manifest by the Child within her leaping for joy. The hands express the joy and happiness. The eyes pour forth the deep religious expression of the soul. Mary’s answer is one of great humility in the “The Magnificat” . . . “My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.” Her eyes and hands express the great content of her position with God and being happy in Elizabeth’s word. The icons of the Child Jesus and of John at age twelve, superimposed on Mary and Elizabeth, indicate the position of the two women and their part in the plans of God. They also denote the sense of responsibility. The strength of coloring indicates the influence that God wants us to find in the created things that he has given us. The pictures as copies of early third century paintings bring us back to the real traditional value of the Church and the emphasis put upon the spiritual over the material. The value of things real grows upon people and the more they see the better and the stronger is their appreciation.

The Sacred Heart Icon

“Cor Jesu Sacratissimum” . . . “most Sacred Heart of Jesus.” The heart is represented by a bunch of grapes dropping the juice into the chalice of salvation. This recalls the manner of satisfaction that Christ performed for God and humanity.

St. Joseph Icon

“Patronus ecclesiae” . . . “Patron of the Church.” The picture represent Joseph as a man thirty years old, and about twice the age of the Blessed Mother. It enhances again more his spiritual character and worth, both as the protector of the Mother and the Child, and as the Patron of the Church. The icon of the church in his hands brings this out. The flowered lily represents the miracle of his position in the relationship to the Mother and Child as the Foster Father.

Brother Frank T. Kacmarcik OblSB, an award-winning artist and church-design consultant and a CAA member since 1951, died February 22, 2004, in Collegeville, Minn. He was 83.

Kacmarcik studied at the Minneapolis School of Art (now Minneapolis College of Art and Design) beginning in 1938. He served in WWII and then traveled to Paris to study painting at the Académie de la Grand Chaumièr and religious art and church decoration at the Centre d’Art Sacré. In 1950 he began teaching at Saint John’s University, where he helped to establish art as a major. The same year he created his first cover for Worship, the American journal of liturgical studies, which he designed or monitored until his death. In 1953 he collaborated closely with the architect Marcel Breuer, who was designing several campus buildings.

During his career, Kacmarcik won more than 60 national and international awards in book design and graphic arts, as well as many awards for building and renovation projects, including six coveted national AIA awards.

Kacmarcik was admitted to Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn., as a claustral oblate; he accepted his final oblation in 1988. Prepared by Lynn Schelitzche