The Frescoes of st. benedict’s abbey
Arguably the greatest miracle to ever occur in the Americas was the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the hill at Tepeyac near Mexico City. On the periphery of the fresco are scenes from the life of St. Juan Diego: a faithful convert to the Catholic Faith, Juan Diego was passing near Tepeyac Hill when he was awestruck by a woman bathed in light – she revealed herself to be the evervirgin Mother of God. She implored him to tell Bishop Juan de Zumárraga to construct a chapel there in her name. Conveying her wishes to the bishop, the bishop dismissed Juan Diego. Upon passing the hill again, he told Our Lady that she should find someone of greater import to convey her message. She told him she had already found her messenger and sent him back to the bishop. The bishop demanded a sign from Juan. Returning again to Tepeyac, Mary told Juan to return the next day and she would provide his sign. That night, Juan’s uncle fell ill and, owing to the need to see to his care, Juan failed to return to see Mary. On an errand for supplies for his uncle, Juan avoided returning to Tepeyac, embarrassed for having missed their meeting – Mary intercepted Juan nonetheless, gently chiding him, “Am I not here, I who am your mother?” She assured Juan that his uncle was healed and the bishop’s requested sign waited for him at the top of the hill: Castilian roses, native to Spain and not grown in the region. He gathered the roses in his tilma and returned to the bishop. Standing before the bishop, Juan Diego let the roses drop to the ground, and the miraculous image appeared on his garment. The basilica, built on the hill in Mary’s honor, still stands to this day. Millions of Catholics travel to the site each year. Jean Charlot’s fresco take on the tilma has a more pastel appearance than it’s miraculous counterpart and is in keeping with the rest of the frescoes at the Abbey. Beneath the fresco on tile (translated from the Spanish) it reads: The flowers sprouted in our land – we praise you, Holy Mother of God!
Passing through doors at the end of the crypt, one is struck by the stark change in the stone. The St. Joseph Chapel is the only public portion of the Abbey Church that features the original Gothic style architecture with peaked windows, massive hand-cut stones, and arches (that compliment the design of the Church). The chapel itself, with the Blessed Sacrament reserved within, provides Monks, students, and guests a place for prayer and the chapel plays host to Masses for a variety of purposes. The fresco on the East wall was offered by fresco artist Jean Charlot as a thank you to the non-ordained brothers of the monastic community for their assistance with completing the massive Abbey Church Fresco. At the time of the Church’s construction the Liturgy of the Hours was prayed in Latin in the Abbey Church by the priests and in English in the St. Joseph Chapel by the lay brothers. The fresco itself is truly remarkable, featuring a rare father-son moment between Christ and his earthly father, St. Joseph. Christ, depicted as lefthanded, is about to drive a nail in the wrong spot on the bench he and St. Joseph are working on – a nod to his fully-human nature. The tools shown in the fresco depict items from around St. Benedict’s Abbey.
