OMI Martyrs Inspire Devotion and Art

 

Originally published on OMIWORLD

In various parts of the Oblate world, the lives and sacrifices of the Blessed Oblate Spanish Martyrs continue to inspire devotion among the faithful; some artists have been inspired to depict them in new ways.

Fr. François CARPENTIER, a native of France and for 50 years a missionary in Cameroon, has told former General Postulator, Fr. Joaquín MARTÍNEZ, of a large picture of the martyrs that now hangs in that African Mission.

In the United States, the Pastoral Center at the Lourdes/Guadalupe Shrine in San Antonio, Texas, has been dedicated to the Oblate Spanish Martyrs. A large copy of the image painted for the beatification hangs in a prominent place in the Center.

An Italian artist from Sicily, Liliana Niceta Siracusano, a member of MAMI, has painted an image of the martyrs standing in a field of wheat and dressed in white robes. “The harvest is still plentiful but workers that were preparing for the harvest were cut down in their youth.”