A Pictorial Life of St. Philip Benizi at SPB Parish, Fullerton, CA

[Versión en Español]

Introduction:

Sometime in July 2021, a family of artists from my parents' part of the world "dropped out of the sky" and came to the Parish to ask if they could paint some things for us.  

They said not to worry about money as they had their own funding but wished in fact to do something nice for a friend they had known who had a connection to Fullerton.  Looking at a number of examples of their work -- they were good -- and assured that this wouldn't cost us anything (we will definitely take up a Collection for them before they complete all of their work), I said what the heck.  

For the sake of due diligence, I had them go through our Diocese's Safe Environment program, complete with finger printing, and I got them all COVID-19 vaccines.   With any such request in this regard, they always quite happily complied.

And so, we set about figuring out things for them to paint. 

After watching them work on the first assignment that we gave them -- to paint a mural of Mary with her arms around the Seven Holy Founders and St. Juliana on one of our old school's walls -- and talking to them as they did so, I saw clearly that these were artists of the "Modern Baroque" variety, that is, that "nothing was really enough, that there was always something more to add."

As such, I asked them for their second assignment -- which was to simply paint on the other side of the school building a large image of St. Philip Benizi on one side of the doorway and perhaps an image of St. Peregrine on the other -- to go "all out" instead.  The wall space was large enough, why not paint the whole life of St. Philip Benizi, the patron saint of our Parish!

Over the 5 years of serving as Pastor at St. Philip Benizi, I've certainly become appreciative of just how important St. Philip Benizi was to the religious order, the Servants of Mary, to which I belong, and I've also looked for ways to help the Parish appreciate the who St. Philip Benizi was.  As such, since the first summer I've been here, we've prayed the Triduum for St. Philip Benizi, complete with blessing olive branches to remember that he was a man of peace in a very troubled time.  

So here I thought, why not take this opportunity to present the life of this Saint to the Parish and really for all to see in this surprising, again, "dropped out of the sky sort of way."

The artists were up for it.  A parish family in the construction field provided 14 fiber-glass cement boards for the project.  Two of these were used to paint Mary as Our Lady of Perpetual help.  The first begins the sequence of images of the life of St. Philip Benizi (as having helped St. Philip's family have the child that they had been praying for).  The second portrays the iconic image in an even a more modern and yet also "trans-alpine" fashion (once one gets over the Alps from Southern Europe the number of angels in the images of Maria Hilfe or Panna Marie Pomocná multiplies). It now graces the niche in front of the Food Pantry of our St. Vincent De Paul Society.  

Having learned from the experience of painting on the fiber-glass / cement panels, they proceeded to produce the work explained below.

This has thus far proven to be a real blessing to us and a remembrance of the Biblical admonition: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it." (Heb 13:2).  

The Murals were formally dedicated in a ceremony presided over by Bishop Kevin Vann, JCD, DD and attended by about 100 people including various civic officials on Dec 20, 2021.

Sincerely and in Christ,

-- Fr. Dennis Kriz, OSM, Pastor

A Pictorial Life of St. Philip Benizi 

(1) The little future St. Philip Benizi is born into a lovely family who had difficulty having him, under the watchful eye of Mary and the Holy Family (Leg. Perugina #2)

(2) The little future St. Philip Benizi points to the Seven Holy Founders passing by his house and calls out “Behold the Servants of Mary” (cf. Leg. Perugina #3)

(3) The future St. Philip Benizi enters the Servite Order, receiving the Habit, a Bible and a Cross (cf Leg. De Origine #55) 

(4) The future St. Philip Benizi’s first Mass, by all accounts to have been very special (Short History of the Servite Order, Chpt 1,pg 7; previous fresco depictions at the Basilica at Monte Senario, and Servite Church of Santa Maria in Via, Rome)

(5) The loyal future St. Philip Benizi’s rejection by the people of Forli while on a Papal mission of peace to the then troubled City (Short History of the Servite Order, Chpt 1, pg 8)

(6) The future St. Philip rejection of the Papal Tiara, choosing instead to look toward the Cross (cf. Traditional iconography for St. Philip Benizi, cf. Short History of the Servite Order, Chpt1, pg 8)

 

(7) The future St. Philip Benizi receives at least temporary Approbation for the Servite Order, but continues to look primarily toward the Cross (cf Short History of the Servite Order, Chpt 1, pg 8, note: the gesture of continuing to look at the cross was conscious editorial flourish of the artists, also supported by pious 16th century tradition, cf. Short History of the Servite Order, Chpt 1, pg 9).

(8) The humility of St. Philip Benizi who was known in fact for liking to sweep and clean churches (Leg. Perugina #12, cf. Fra Gottfried M. Wolff, Prior General, OSM "Philip: Go to My Servants" (2021) pg  11-12).

(9) The reconciliation of St. Philip Benizi with St. Peregrine, the only one from Forli who seemed to repent of his treatment of him when he was there (cf Leg. Peregrine #9, 16^th Century Life of St. Peregrine, Short History of the Servite Order, Chpt 1, pg 8)

(10) The future St. Philip Benizi was known to conjure up bread in times of need (Leg. Vulgada #14, 18)

(11) The future St. Philip Benizi gives a poor man his cloak (Leg. Perugina #9)

 

(12) The future St. Philip Benizi, asleep, late in life and approaching death, under the embrace of Mary as the Pieta in his dreams (cf. Lit. of the Hours, OSM, Office of Readings, Reading II, from the Life of Blessed Philip, cf. Short History ofthe Servite Order, Chpt 1, pg 9)