• =?UTF-8?Q?18_February_=E2=80=93_Blessed_FRA_ANGELICO?=

    From rich@1:396/4 to All on Wed Feb 17 09:06:04 2021
    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)