Ugly Crucifixes

Images are supposed to evoke religious piety and fervor.

Crucifixes are supposed to recall the passion and death of our Savior.

Would you even think of his bitter suffering looking at these?

Or would you suffer just by looking at these?

Never before in the history of the Church have we seen religious art that are neither religious nor art.

They are simply trash.

Business opportunity!

If anybody knows who makes this image of our new Saint, please PM me and I will promote you in the blog.

I get a lot of inquiries.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY!!!

Wrong way to illustrate John Paul II

Or any blessed/saint pope for that matter!

Here is how Pope St. Pius X is represented

Pope Pius X is holding a book here.  My guess is this is his Catechism, which like the Baltimore Catechism is still a very good Catechism.  Click here for a copy.

See here?

St. Pius X is wearing the red cape but no miter and no ferula.

Why?

Because the pope here is not vested for Mass!


Look at what a friend found, a statue of the soon-to-be St. John Paul II at the Blessed John Paul II parish in Eastwood, Libis, Quezon City.

Notice something?

Yup.

The papal ferula and miter is on the image!

Yet!

The pope is not vested for Mass.

FYI, the papal cape is NOT a liturgical vestment!

Look at how the red cape is worn by the pope.

Lesson?

Just Google.

Or be humble enough to ask if you don't know or are not sure.


If I were to illustrate St. John Paul II, I'll have him hold a copy of Evangelium Vitae on his left hand and would have young people standing next or kneeling beside him with his hand raised like that of a teacher.

Why?

Those are just two of his greatest legacy.  Maybe a little edit to this and we got it right.  :)

You illustrate a saint with people or things associated with him.

With Pope John XXIII, have him hold a copy of the Apostolic Constitution Humanae Salutis.  FYI, that declared the convening of the Second Vatican Council.

He holds a scroll with his famous quote about the need to call the Vatican Council II "We are not on earth to guard a museum, but to tend a blooming garden full of life."

Any artist out there?  :)

PS:  I am still looking for a good statue of St. Lorenzo Ruiz and St. Pedro Calungsod highlighting their martyrdom.

Another Great Image of St. Pedro Calungsod

I once made a post about how to best illustrate a martyr-saint. You can also read about my personal fave image of St. Pedro.

This is the image that was presented to Cardinal Vidal.

Now since today is the death anniversary of St. Pedro Calungsod, my namesake and patron, I present to you a new image I have found of St. Pedro. Note, it still doesn't look like what you see in religious store shelves today.

Glad to see the images of his martyrdom are seen in the image.  :)

The best image of St. Pedro Calungsod

FINALLY!

Someone probably read my blog post about the correct way to illustrate a martyr saint.

Now you have this image!

Photos are courtesy of Cebu Cathedral Lectorate Ministry Pilgrimage & Fellowship

Here is the wonderful image.

You can see the Emeritus archbishop of Cebu, Ricardo Cardinal Vidal sitting at the back.

Here St. Pedro Calungsod is shown holding the instruments of his martyrdom including the mortal wounds that sent him to God. You can also see the other elements shown in other representations of the teenage martyr like the palm and the Doctrina Cristiana.

His feet are also astride meaning he is on the move as he is a missionary catechist. Take note that he has two wounds, one of his chest and the other on his head, all based on eye witness accounts of his martyrdom.

Here is a close-up

Beautiful isn't it?

This is the right way to represent a martyr!

If I find commercial versions of this, I am definitely going to buy one and donate it to our parish church!

Ask your parish priest to have one like this!

The explanation of the image of St. Pedro Calungsod

Spot what is wrong in this photo. I will update this post to reveal my take on this.


 ***

UPDATE:  Nov. 15, 2012  5:00PM 

Some of our readers got it right. The white shirt does not symbolize martyrdom.  It should be red!  But the palm leaf is already indicative that the saint is a martyr as palm leaves symbolizes martyrdom. I saw other photos of St. Pedro where he is holding the instruments of his martyrdom.

Those are the traditional types of iconography for martyrs. Here are the samples:


St. Bartholomew and the knife and his flayed skin in the Lateran Basilica

And the same saint, with his flayed image in the Milan Cathedral or the Duomo

Now here is St. Lucy offering up her eyes

St. Philomena with her anchor and arrows

St. Peter Martyr and the axe embedded on his head

St. Lawrence of Rome, deacon and martyr, holding the collection box of the alms.  As deacon, it is his work to tend to the poor and widows, and the gridiron since he was burned alive.

Now you ask me why our own saints, Lorenzo Ruiz and Pedro Calungsod illustrated that way.

I don't know, but I sure am not satisfied. Because the iconography of a saint would tell who he was and what his greatest moment was in his life.  The items closely related to them will tell the story, just by looking at their images.

How I wish to see St. Pedro Calungsod portrayed with a spear and a machete. 

How I wish to see St. Lorenzo Ruiz, still with the same pose he has today in his images but with his hands and feet tied and his fingers bleeding. 

Then when a kid looks at their images and asks, "Why do they look that way?"

Ahhh!  What a great way to start to tell their stories!

So to the one who said that white is the color of martyrdom. Read your Catholic Martyrs 101. :)

Jesus after the flagellation

Ecce homo!

Images are like photographs.  They remind us of the someone or something.

Even though they are rabidly against the use of images, the INC themselves have constructed a statue of the rapist, angel wannabe, anti-Christ Felix Manalo Ysagun.

But I'm digressing again.

Here is a highly detailed image of  Christ after his flagellation from the private collection of Dr. Love, Br. Jun Banaag, OP, a Tertiary Dominican, and famous radio host.

Looking at this image takes me back to the gut-wrenching flagellation scene of The Passion of the Christ.

Images really help us to pray and recall the important moments in the lives of the Lord and the saints, just as pictures of our loved ones and important moments in our lives are captured through photographs and paintings.

And for the nth time, even if we kiss or kneel before these images, CATHOLICS DO NOT WORSHIP THESE IMAGES OR STATUES OR ICONS!

All images are copyrighted by Br. Jun Banaag, OP, so don't copy it and use it for your Facebook profile or claim it as your own!

The details and painting are stunning!  You can see that the left eye of the image is swollen, added to show how the face suffered at the hands of the Roman torturers.

Here is the close up of the face.  You can see a dried tear on the eye.  The wound on the cheek is so realistic!  The paint shows both freshly dripping blood and dried blood.  This is really a work of a master craftsman!

And here is the view of the image showing the flagellation wounds!

By His stripes, we are healed!

Imagine, just a fish bone stuck down our throats and we are whining the whole day!  Compare it with what Christ went through for us!

***

You can view the full photo set of the images by visiting the Flickr account of Br. Jun Banaag.

Remember!  These are not my photos.  These are copyrighted images of Br. Banaag.  Visit the link for viewing purposes only and do not COPY!

Blessed Pedro's canonization is announced

Yeah I have read about it over the weekend and even saw it on TV.

I got lots of reports about in on Facebook, and read the news on my phone, so just so I was able to report it:



HIMAYA SA DIYOS!!!

VIVA SAN PEDRO CALUNGSOD NG CEBU!!! 

 

PRAYER TO THE NEW SAINT

Blessed Pedro Calungsod,
Young migrant, student, catechist,
missionary, faithful friend, martyr,
you inspire us by your fidelity in times of adversity,
by your courage in teaching the faith in the midst of hostility,
and by your love in shedding your blood for the sake of the Gospel.
Make our troubles your own (here mention your request),
and intercede for us before the throne of Mercy and Grace
so that as we experience the help of heaven we may be encouraged
to proclaim and live the Gospel here on earth.

***

A little trivia for you folks:

Did you know that the model for the beatification icon of Blessed Pedro Calungsod was a not so well-known college athlete (back then, duh!) named RONALD TUBID?  Incidentally, Tubid is from Iloilo, a Visayan like our new saint.

Yup that' his face below folks.

And here are some comparison shots for you folks.

Here are articles in the Internet about this:  here and here and here:

Now there are a lot of dumb discussion about this choice for Tubid.  One anti-Catholic writer writes:  'So when Catholics bow down and kneel before the statue of Calungsod, who are Catholics worshipping, Calungsod or Tubid?"

Ugh!

First, we, Catholics, do not worship saints!  We ONLY WORSHIP God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Second, we, Catholics, pray to saints to ask them to pray for us much like what Bible totting Evangelicals ask their pastors to pray for them and lay hands on them during the altar call.

Thirdly, we, Catholics, will PRAY and TALK to Pedro Calungsod who is in Heaven, as attested by the miracles he brought to people who asked for his intercession, miracles HE PRAYED TO GOD for us who are here on earth still 'working out our salvation with fear and trembling."  When we look at the image, we see Pedro Calungsod, the young Visayan boy, catechist, martyr and SAINT.  We do not see Ronald Tubid the basketball player.  We will not talk to Ronald Tubid the basketball player.  We will NOT pray to Ronald Tubid the basketball player.  We will pray FOR Tubid instead.

Icon of John Paul II

I saw this icon of the soon to be Blessed.

 

Courtesy of Bridge Building.com

What do you think?