Staff Report

A bigger-than-life painting of St. Francis de Sales, prinicipal patron of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati is a new addition to the eighth floor lobby of the archdiocesan headquarters building at 100 E. Eighth Street in downtown Cincinnati. The painting was installed in February.

Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr commissioned the painting by well-known Cincinnati artist Holly Schapker, a parishioner at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains.

St. Francis de Sales, who was bishop of Geneva, Switzerland in the 17th century, is also the patron saint of writers and journalists because of his effective use of pamphlets in evangelizing his Calvinist diocese. A statue of St. Francis de Sales has long stood at the entrance to the offices of The Catholic Telegraph as well.

Introduction to the Devout Life, his most famous book, is considered by many to be a spiritual classic. It was written for lay people, which was unusual in his era.

The black madonna in the book the saint is holding in the painting is Our Lady of Montserrat, patron saint of Catalonia, to whom St. Francis de Sales had a great devotion.

On the opposite page is a picture of the Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains, the official church of the Archbishop of Cincinnati.

The crest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati appears at the top right of the painting.

Posted March 25, 2015