Dominicans are best known for their preaching from the pulpit , rather than through
their art work . To mark the 18th February , the day the Church remembers a famous
artist from this Order, Blessed Fra Angelico, Veronica Scarisbrick turns to a
fellow Dominican Father Robert Ombres.
Asked to explain the special charism
of this Friar, Father Ombres highlights how one of the many mottos of the Dominican
Order: ".. is to give to others the fruit of our contemplation and painting ... first
to be communicated and then to be precisely the fruit of contemplation.... because
vision is one of the elements of contemplation ..traditionally for us heaven will
mean the beatific vision.."
Famously Fra Angelico featured angels in his paintings,
among the more well known are his depictions of the Annunciation and of the dancing
angels, but the question that comes to mind is why he was known as "Angelico ". Father
Ombres tells us there are many reasons for his being known as the angelic painter
and then as the angelic friar: " ... because of the purity , the holiness of his
own life ... the subject matter ..the extraordinary beauty , purity reflected .."
Listen to this interview with Father Robert Ombres, Procurator
General of the Dominicans :