Painting Holiness

Father Giacomo da Ghazir Haddad was beatified on June 22 in Lebanon. A painting by the Russian artist Natalia Tsarkova now graces the Church of Our Lady of the Sea.

ROME (Zenit) - Where else but Rome could one put a Lebanese saint and a Russian painter together and end up with a new, stunning work of contemporary art?

Father Giacomo da Ghazir Haddad was beatified on June 22 in Lebanon. A new painting by the brilliant Russian artist Natalia Tsarkova, blessed by Benedict XVI on May 21 now graces the Church of Our Lady of the Sea.

Father Giacomo, born Khalil Da Ghazir Haddad in Ghazir in 1875, was a priest of the Capuchin Order of Franciscans and founded of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Cross in Lebanon. He died on June 26, 1954.

The saint had a particular calling to help the sick, which he first felt when hearing the confession of a sick priest in a public hospital. Deeply moved, Father Giacomo brought the invalid to his Parish of Our Lady of the Sea where soon others came to join him.

To care for the growing number of infirm, Father Giacomo founded the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Cross in Lebanon, which still thrives today. Sister Marie Makhlouf, superior general of the order, worked closely with Tsarkova to help the painter understand the special charism of the saint.

Father Giacomo's love extended beyond ailing priests to all those who suffered alone. The disabled, mentally handicapped, terminally ill and orphaned all found solace in the works of this tireless saint.

His Hospital of the Cross is now the largest center in the Middle East for treatment of the mentally ill.

Besides his remarkable good works in caring for the sick and marginated, Father Giacomo left a tangible sign of the faith of the Lebanese. On the Jall-Eddib Hill outside of Lebanon he erected a large cross, as a place of prayer for the Lebanese killed in war or forced to leave their homeland.

The last decade has seen several Lebanese saints raised to the altars, such as St. Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini and St. Rafka, but this Father Giacomo is the first to be beatified in his homeland.

To celebrate the occasion, a painting of the saint was commission from Natalia Tsarkova, one of the most sought-after artists in Rome.

Tsarkova, working under a very quick deadline, produced a beautiful image of the saint which stood in the church during his beatification last week.

A richly colored curtain opens in the left-hand corner recalling the embroideries of the Middle East and contrasting with the simple Franciscan robe of Father Giacomo. The saint occupies most of the canvas radiating a golden glow of heavenly light.

Above him, the angel of Divine Providence, upon which the saint reposed much trust, indicates the great hospital he founded at Our Lady of the Sea. Unlike the simple structure that Father Giacomo served in, the building is large and modernized, showing how the saint's work continues successfully today.

All lines in the work lead to the well worn cross in his hand, a symbol of his constant devotion to Christ's suffering as well as the great crosses he erected in his homeland.

Father Giacomo tenderly cradles the hand of an ailing priest a reminder of the beginning of his mission to tend the ill, while a Down syndrome child stands at his knee, grateful for his protection and care.

A very sad note to this work is that Tsarkova had terrible difficulties finding a Down child for a model as most are tragically aborted in Italy.

At the feet of the saint, a nurse kneels with a glass of water, reminiscent of Father Giacomo's instructions to serve the needy on one's knees. One can faintly recognize the artist in the figure with the modest, downcast eyes and bent shoulders.

To understand the saint's life better Tsarkova put in many hours of service in a center caring for the mentally disabled near Rome.

The composition is tightly packed with figures like the saint's life, but a bright red Bible announces its centrality in Father Giacomo's mission and the coat-of-arms of Benedict XVI will remind the millions who will pray at this altar through the years who beatified this great man.

This work was a departure for Tsarkova, who has been the papal portrait artist for three popes, but she was happy to turn her attention to this new challenge, and to unite this extraordinary story of holiness to the beautiful art of Rome.

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Elizabeth Lev teaches Christian art and architecture at Duquesne University's Rome campus. She can be reached at lizlev@zenit.org.