![]() ![]() What Pope John Paul II said of Fra Angelico equally applies to Andrei Rublev: “Why do we need miracles? This is his miracle.”Īnd indeed, it is. He lived the harsh life of an Orthodox monk he followed the way of the desert fathers he pursued the heights of contemplation and dwelt with God in the inner sanctum of his heart. In the absence of miracles, Pope John Paul II remarked at his beatification ceremony, “Why do we need miracles? These are his miracles.” The same may be (and is!) said of Rublev in the East, even if his corpus is open for debate or remains incomplete. Each of his many paintings dealt with the divine, and each ostensibly came as a result of spiritual inspiration. He lived the ascetic life of a Dominican friar he followed the prescriptions of the Order in ministering to the poor the perfect integrity of his life became well-known throughout Italy. Of Fra Angelico we can assuredly say that he is and was deserving of beatification. The historical proximity of their glorification/canonization is extraordinary, if not providential. The cause for Fra Angelico, which also remained dormant for centuries (much to the chagrin of Dominicans everywhere), moved forward in 1982 when Pope John Paul II proclaimed his beatification and approved his cult for the universal Church. The cause for Rublev, which remained dormant for centuries, was realized in 1988 during the celebration of the Millennium of the Baptism of Rus’ (otherwise known as the 1000th Anniversary of the Christianization of Rus’). Rublev and Fra Angelico lived in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, respectively. The cult of Rublev is perhaps best explained by the cult of our very own Dominican, Fra Angelico. The familiar icon is known by its pithy title, The Trinity. The latter icon is widely considered the greatest accomplishment of Russian iconography copies of the work adorn the homes and churches of Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant Christians alike. At the turn of the twentieth century, however, scholars attributed only one icon to Rublev with absolute certainty. Since this unhappy occurrence, scholars have argued for the attribution of particular icons to Rublev, including an assortment of saints and angels from Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir, Russia. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when his name had become almost synonymous with Russian iconography, some well-meaning and pious souls attributed numerous icons to his hand, conflating the historical record and sullying any hope of reconstructing an accurate corpus. Little is known about his life, and still less is known about the breadth of his work as an iconographer. In 1988, the Russian Orthodox Church “glorified” (the formal process of canonization in the East) the celebrated iconographer Andrei Rublev (c. Get the Ultimate Introduction to Philosophy “Ask Bishop Barron” on the WOF Show Podcast.Science and Religion in Modern Astronomy. ![]() WOF 374: The Baptismal Priesthood and Evangelization w/ Fr.WOF 375: The Liturgy and Social Justice.
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