Friday, November 1, 2013

All Saints and All Souls


My coloring page for All Saints' Day includes some saints and blesseds (and others, read on) whose days aren't liturgically observed on the calendars I'm covering. In choosing, I tried to cover a wide range of time, and they all are particularly interesting to me.

Clockwise from the top, they are: St. Brigid of Kildare, St. Boethius, Bl. Pius IX, St. Julia, St. Philomena, Beatrice Portinari, St. Peter Martyr, St. Margaret of Cortona, Bl. Charles of Austria, Zita of Bourbon-Parma, and in the center are Bl. Imelda Lambertini and Bl. Jose Sanchez del Rio.

You may have noticed I included two people for whom the Church has not declared any saintly status. This is to emphasize that All Saints' Day covers absolutely everyone in Heaven. And Zita's cause is open, and Beatrice-- that's Dante's Beatrice, so... yeah. If he can say she's in Heaven with such power, I can but defer to him. And did you know, there's an encyclical, of Pope Benedict XIV, which says that Dante is the greatest poet of all.

I didn't want just to have a group picture and that's all there was to it, so they're united, Communion of Saints, in the halos of the Sacrament on Bl. Imelda's tongue. I know, in Heaven He won't be hidden under other attributes, but that was the best I could draw It here. Everyone's looking that way except Beatrice, who's looking at us, a bridge to bring us into this, like she was to Dante.


My All Souls page is also Dantean, with the mountain and procession. Two real people I included here: King Charles II of England and Oscar Wilde. Both led dissolute lives and joined the Church on their deathbeds, so I think it's not unlikely that they were or are in Purgatory for some time. If I'm wrong one way they'll forgive me, if, God forbid, I'm wrong the other, that's just too bad. The sugar skulls indicate prayers and acts of charity, (including offering sugar skulls,) that the living do for the souls in Purgatory.

All the November pages will be sent out soon!
Go here to sign up for coloring pages of every single saint's day!

2 comments:

Spencer said...

I absolutely love these! How wonderful! Thank you so much for doing this.

Unknown said...

Great, my wife and I both really liked these!