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Wednesday, February 12, 2025
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Icons of Hope in the Jubilee Year

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icons of hope
Icons of Hope Exhibit. Photo: Daniel Ang.

As a part of the Jubilee Year Piazza Navona, once the site of the Stadium of Domitian and the martyrdom of St Agnes, plays host to an initiative of the Dicastery for Evangelisation and Vatican Museums entitled “Icons of Hope.” 

Attracting thousands of pilgrims each day, the exhibit is set in the heart of the Basilica of Sant’Agnese in Agone, a Baroque church of the mid-17th century designed by Borromini. 

I was privileged to visit the exhibit on the eve of St Agnes’ feast day and gaze upon scenes from the life of Jesus, Mary and the saints.  

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This initiative is just one expression of Pope Francis’ desire for the Jubilee Year, that a sense of beauty meet pilgrims in their search for meaning, and that artistic masterpieces deepen pilgrims’ hope in God’s grace and draw them into the holiness that these icons express.  

The Director of the Vatican Museums Barbara Jatta shared that 18 icons were chosen for the initiative and “not just those visible in the exhibition halls but also, in some cases, usually kept in storage.”  

Barbara Jatta, director of the Vatican Museums, speaks during a news conference at the Vatican Oct. 28, 2024. (CNS photo/Justin McLellan)

Most striking were the precious icons from the Eastern Churches including a Slavic-Macedonian painting depicting the twelve feasts of the Byzantine Church, from the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, the Nativity of Christ, to the Dormition of the Virgin. Interestingly, the raising of Lazarus is included among them, the miracle serving as a key witness to the Resurrection that will take place at the Last Judgment.  

The Ukrainian icon on display was moving as well, reflecting in its disfigurement the difficulties and suffering of its home country. This icon of the Virgin Odigitria was rescued from the then-USSR, with the panel turned upside down and used for decades as the shelf of a closet in the village of Popeliv in Western Ukraine. It would eventually be given to Pope John Paul II as a gift during his apostolic visit to those lands in 2001.  

Also on display was a remarkable icon containing 144 images of the Virgin and Child, also gifted to John Paul II, from Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 1993. Heralding from the late 19th century, the painting includes iconographies from the Orthodox sphere as well as central and Western Europe. Representing the influence of the different traditions of the church, it is a testament to the centrality of Mary’s intercession in the spiritual life of pilgrims across the churches and the faithful across the world. 

The Icons of Hope exhibit concludes on the 16 February 2025 and are available to view online.

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