Custom framers Roberto and Jose Lavadie deliver artist Father William Hart McNichols’ original icon, “Mother of God, Seat of Wisdom,” to St. Thomas More Parish in Coralville May 28.
By Lindsay Steele
The Catholic Messenger
CORALVILLE — A renowned iconographer’s original work has come home to St. Thomas More Parish.
Last year, the parish commissioned Father William Hart McNichols, a former Jesuit whose work is on display at the Vatican Museums, to write an icon of “Mother of God, Seat of Wisdom.” The Litany-derived title holds special meaning to the parish, due to its proximity to the University of Iowa, said lay leader Mary Lu Callahan.
Callahan became acquainted with the priest-artist two years ago when he spoke at an Outreach conference at Georgetown University. Touched by his art and testimony, she brought home a book about the priest and artist and showed it to her pastor, Father Chuck Adam. He was likewise impressed. “I was very intrigued by the way his icons uniquely portray Jesus, Mary and the saints,” he said. “I also appreciated reading about his background and involvement in social issues of his time and the way important themes of peace and justice and mercy are reflected in his works.”
Father McNichols studied iconography under Russian-American master Robert Lentz and personally delivered an icon of “Our Lady of the New Advent: The Burning Bush” to St. John Paul II in 1993. Time magazine once heralded the priest-artist “as among the most famous creators of Christian Iconic imagery in the world.”
The parish initially struggled to get in touch with the busy artist, who also serves as a sacramental priest in the Albuquerque, New Mexico, area. However, Father James Martin, S.J., an internationally known Jesuit who has friends in the Coralville Catholic community, helped the parish and artist to connect last fall.
“I love this title, along with many evocative titles of Mary,” Father McNichols said. “Even though the icon would be fairly large — 3 feet by four feet — I just couldn’t say no, because it sounded like a calling, a vocation, as challenging as any icon I’ve ever been asked (to write).” St. Thomas More — the parish’s patron saint, is “himself a wisdom figure,” he added. A parishioner, who wished to remain anonymous, split the cost of the commission with the parish.
In the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox traditions, the verb “write” is usually used instead of “paint” to describe the process by which an icon is made. The terminology comes from the Greek word for creating icons which literally means “to write.” St. Luke, the Gospel writer, is traditionally credited as the first iconographer. He depicted Mary and the child Jesus. The Second Council of Nicea proclaimed, in the year 787, the special place that icons and other holy art depicting Jesus, Mary and others saints have: “The more frequently they are seen in representational art, the more are those who see them drawn to remember and long for those who serve as models, and to pay these images the tribute of salutation and respectful veneration.”
This was Father McNichols’ first time writing an icon of “Mother of God, Seat of Wisdom.” According to Notre Dame University, “Mary has this title in her Litany, because the Son of God, who is also called in Scripture the Word and Wisdom of God, once dwelt in her, and then, after his birth of her, was carried in her arms and seated in her lap in his first years. Thus, being as it were, the human throne of Him who reigns in heaven, she is called the Seat of Wisdom.”
The parish gave Father McNichols space to pray and discern how to write the icon. “We didn’t see any of it while it was being created,” Callahan said. Father McNichols developed and wrote the icon over a six-month period, using symbols such as the border of blossoming flowers of wisdom and Mary’s scepter of a flaming rose, “symbolic of a very different kind of kingdom,” he said. “She, herself (was) a throne for the little king, eyes cast down deferring to the Christ Child, holy wisdom, and the dancing flames of wisdom, igniting purification and a New Pentecost.”
Upon completion, Roberto and Jose Lavadie of nearby Taos, New Mexico, framed the work. Serendipitously, the Lavadies, who frequently collaborate with the priest, planned to travel to Iowa City in late spring to visit family. They took the framed icon with them and delivered it to St. Thomas More Parish on May 28.
During the big reveal, Father Adam was immediately drawn to the way Father McNichols portrayed the Blessed Mother. “She is looking down lovingly and reflectively at the child Jesus.”
“The way Mary is looking down with protectiveness and pride on Jesus is a look every mother understands,” Callahan said, adding that she observes serenity and peace in the gaze of the Christ child.
The parish officially unveiled the image during Masses the weekend of June 6-7. It then moved to its permanent place in the parish’s devotional chapel, which includes diverse statues and images for the faithful to gaze upon while praying to God.
Father Adam hopes everyone who prays before the icon will find inspiration, as Mary did, “looking to Jesus as the one who shows us true holy wisdom and the path to peace and unity in the world.”
Prints of “Mother of God, Seat of Wisdom” are available on Father McNichols’ website. For more information go to https://tinyurl.com/SeatofWisdom26.
