"Faith and Frescoes: Celebrating Holy Women through Art"

"The Umbrian town of Terni, Italy, suffered extensive damage from World War II bombing. It paid the price for being a center of armament production. Through the decades, much of the town has been restored...

Despite all the restoration efforts in Terni, one large church stood alone in need of major renovation. The Church of the Immaculate Conception peered out lifelessly across a meadow. In 2017, Don Giovanni, then pastor in the Diocese of Terni, saw potential in the church. Its very name indicated life: Immaculate Conception, life from a woman.

Gathering parishioners, townspeople, Italian theologian Lilia Sebastiani, and other imaginative individuals, Don Giovanni experienced the birth of a plan. This church would bear witness to women whose faithfulness—as recorded in the Torah, the Bible, and the Quran—has endured through millennia. The women selected for the project have inspired, nurtured, and often suffered for their faith. What unites them is their faith in God, the Holy One, revered and worshipped in the Abrahamic religions.

The purpose of the project is to ignite discussion about what these women of faith reveal regarding the 'genius of women.' This phrase comes from St. John Paul II’s 1997 book, "The Genius of Women." What role does God desire that women exercise to bring about the kingdom here on earth? For far too long the true gift of women to the life of faith and the life of the Church has been underemphasized. Attention is needed to bring into full consciousness the feminine 'genius of women. ..."

Click here to read more of the article by Patti Normille in the  "St. Anthony Messenger" magazine, .