Award for Religious Arts

Patricia Brintle

New York, NY

In the spring of 2020, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent national reckoning with racism in the United States, the Church of Saint Francis Xavier community responded with initiatives to learn more about race relations in our community and in the Catholic Church, resulting in a reimagining of the church sanctuary.

The church building was designed by the Irish-born architect Patrick Keely and built in the early 1880’s in the Roman Basilica style, with nearly 50 murals by the German-born artist William Lamprecht. The building and its interiors reflect the devotional iconography of the time as well as the predominantly Irish, German, and Italian founding congregation. In the course of the subsequent 140 years, the Catholic Church has come to recognize numerous people of sacred virtue from around the world and formally canonized many of them as examples of faith in different cultural settings. In light of this, parish volunteers helped envision ways to diversify our iconography while maintaining the integrity of our 19th-century sanctuary.

The art committee selected the Haitian-born artist Patricia Brintle to create images of twelve heroic Catholics: Sister Thea Bowman, St. Rose de Lima, St. Josephine Bakhita, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Mother Mary Lange, St. Charles Lwanga, St. Lorenzo Ruiz, St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon, Ven. Pierre Toussaint, St. Oscar Romero, St. Anre Dung Lac, and Sister Rani Maria. The original acrylics, painted on birchwood panels and installed in spare gilt frames, have been mounted to the Italian marble pilasters that flank the stations of the cross along the church’s aisles. These additions to the Church of Saint Francis Xavier’s sacred interior provide a more diverse and inclusive place of identification and worship to all faithful who enter its doors.

Jury Comments

This art installation finds a lasting way to add these pieces in the context of an historic church interior. Each icon has its own presence while supporting the older, larger Stations of the Cross artworks in new ways. A bold insertion.

Project Team Members

Kristen Beckles
Jim Calimano
Belinda Conway
Karen DeMasi
Nancy Fava
Doug Gellenbeck
Phil Gutierrez
Dugan McGinley
Paul Moreno
Ron Oberdick
Lynda Stewart Kennedy
Tess Thompson
Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe
Kenneth Boller, S.J.

Project Consultants

Donald Kennedy, photography