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Precious Blood Sister an artist at 90
By Sister Julie | February 25, 2008
Catholic News Service recently published this article, “At age 90, Precious Blood sister who is an artist still going strong“.
Here’s the beginning of the article …
DAYTON, Ohio (CNS) — Most people looking at a block of wood or stone see … a block of wood or stone. But Precious Blood Sister Eileen Tomlinson apparently thinks like the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo.
According to legend, Michelangelo said that when he looked at a block of marble he saw the figure within, waiting to be released.
Last winter, Sister Eileen looked at a large log of walnut wood and saw more than what met the eye. She saw Mother Maria Anna Brunner, the Swiss-born foundress of the Sisters of the Precious Blood. And she soon went to work to free her.
In their 174-year history, the Dayton-based Sisters of the Precious Blood have had no shortage of talented women, artists who work in almost every medium. But Sister Eileen’s talents range across an incredibly wide artistic spectrum: oil, acrylic and watercolor painting, pen-and-ink illustration, calligraphy, sculpture and woodcarving.
Trained as an artist, Sister Eileen was an art teacher for many years in Ohio and California before she “retired” to the motherhouse, called Salem Heights, in 1997.
Since then she has been the unofficial artist-in-residence at the motherhouse, in constant demand for her artistic work.
(read more; hyperlinks mine)
The Precious Blood Sisters write more about Sister Eileen and the statue here.
I am eternally intrigued by the founders of religious communities. I’d never heard of Mother Maria Anna Brunner. Here’s what the sisters say about their founder.
The Sisters of the Precious Blood were founded by a creative Swiss woman, Maria Anna Brunner. A married woman and the mother of six, Maria Anna had a deep love for the Eucharist and for the poor, especially orphans. In 1834, after her husband died and her children became independent, Maria Anna realized her life work was still not completed.
Maria Anna, then 68 years old, experienced an unusual calling from God and dared to say “Yes.” Women were attracted to her life of adoration of the Eucharist, reconciliation, simplicity, and outreach to the poor. These women joined her in that total dedication to the Precious Blood.
Mother Brunner died in 1836, but she had begun a second family and the work of this family was to continue and spread. In 1844 several Sisters came to America and from that beginning the Congregation of the Sisters of the Precious Blood has spread.
(source)
Topics: news on the nunfront, saints and holy people |
February 25th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
These are the sisters who taught my high school. The school is no longer a school–hasn’t been for years. The sisters I knew would be in the 60th jubilee group at least. It’s that long ago.