The Mount Angel Oblate Icon

This icon presents four saints for veneration.  In the center, St. Michael the Archangel offers St. Benedict to us, the viewers.  On either side of St. Benedict are St. Henry II, the Emperor, and St. Frances of Rome, the patron saints of Benedictine oblates.

The archangel in a sense presents the medal of St. Benedict, but in his hands and in these dimensions it is offered as a shield, for St. Michael is our defender in battle, and the message is that St. Benedict and all that he stands for will be our shield and our protection.  St. Benedict, clothed in the habit of ancient monks, wears the hood as a helmet, with the mystery of the cross as his protection.  The same mystery of the cross also is his breastplate.  His hands are raised in prayer.

But the archangel is also holding out to us St. Benedict under the title of "Mirror of Good Works."  The viewer looks at St. Benedict as into a mirror and sees what he is meant to be:  another Benedict with hands raised in prayer.  The saint peers beyond us, deep into the mystery of God.  But the archangel's glance is turned directly toward the viewer.  His face pleads gently but earnestly that we accept the mystery that he is offering.  He is aware that he is offering "the hard and narrow ways by which we come to God," and thus a certain sadness is detected.  But there is also knowledge in his eyes:  knowledge that this mystery leads to the already accomplished victory and glory of resurrection.  St. Michael is clothed in soft tones of blue and green, echoing in his person the clothing of the Holy Spirit as found in the icon which presents the Holy Trinity as mysterious visitors to Abraham.  It is the Holy Spirit working through his messenger angels, who ultimately presents to us the mystery of the cross in the person of his saints.  The archangel holds this mystery likewise as a staff in his hand. The design of the cross here is also taken from the medal of St. Benedict as we see it as a tree of life.  St. Henry and St. Frances are pictured against a dark backdrop, representing their lives in this-worldly affairs.  But from their concrete circumstances in history they participate in the glorious life of heaven, represented in gold, through their communion with St. Benedict.  Both saints are pointing to their spiritual father and master.  St. Henry, whose life spans the tenth and eleventh centuries, on a visit to Montecassino, wanted to remain there as a monk, but he was told that he could do more good in the world, strengthened by his contact with the monks.  Thus, he is a patron for oblates.  St. Frances, similarly desirous of the life of the cloister, was compelled by the circumstances in fifteenth century Rome to live a life of extraordinary charity, ministering to the victims of the plague and other sicknesses.  In St. Benedict, the mirror of good works, she too became a mirror of good works in her own time.  In her hands she holds the Scriptures which inspired and shaped her charity; or perhaps it is a copy of the Holy Rule, the compendium of the Scriptures which focuses them for practical application.

A mountain cuts through all the planes of the icon and rises sharply toward the east and the gold of the rising sun, representing Christ's return to glory.  St. Michael and St. Benedict are entirely caught up in this eastward ascent.  The mountain reminds us of St. Benedict's citation of the psalm in the prologue of his Holy Rule: "Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord:"  The psalmist answers his question:  "The one with clean hands and a pure heart."  St. Benedict's monastic way is a cleansing of hands and hearts which allows the ascent of the mountain.  This mountain is Montecassino for St. Henry, the hills of Rome for St. Francis, Mount Angel for the monks and oblates here.  It is any this-worldly mountain from which through our own concrete circumstances in history we may ascend the mountain that reaches all the way to heaven.

A temple or church frames all the action of the icon.  In the proportion of its arches and its tiled roofs, it echoes the architecture of Mount Angel, reminding the viewer that all these sights present to us with their message, their power, and their protection.  But the tiles are blue...representing the very dome of heaven, for any particular church in a particular place and time is always concretely a gate to heaven.  The temple is stylized in an almost Oriental form, suggesting perhaps Mount Angel's location along the Pacific Rim where in the future, and already now, many cultures will mix and where....oblates will have a vital role to play in gathering people from every race and nation into one family of God.

The viewer is made to think of the exultant cry of the psalmist: "O city, founded by the Lord on the holy mountains!  Of Zion it will be said, "Each and every man was born in her," and "The Most High will make her secure!" (Psalm 87). Or as another psalm has it: "Hold a procession and walk round Zion; count the number of her towers and mark her fortresses well."  Benedict, Michael, Frances, and Henry same psalmist answers: "So that you will be able to tell the next generation. 'This God ours--God forever and ever he is the one who will guide us for all time to come!" (Psalm 48)