By Ana Rodriguez Soto - Florida Catholic newspaper
Panamanian Consul General Adela Chiari de Rey, center, speaks with artist Sheila Lichacz while looking at her work. At right is Vice-Consul Ana Isabel Rodriguez.
View of artist Sheila Lichacz's work, The Cross of Mary, created from Pre-Columbian shells that are as many as 12,000 years old. Lichacz says she sees Mary's image within the shells.
St. Thomas University students view Sheila Lichacz's "Vessels of Love" exhibit in the university's Archbishop John C. Favalora Archive and Museum inside the library.
Msgr. Franklyn Casale, St. Thomas University's president, views the "Vessels of Love" exhibit with artist Sheila Lichacz.
Artist Sheila Lichacz's works hang next to a room-full of photographs from Mother Teresa of Kolkata's various visits to Miami.
A letter from Mother Teresa and prayer cards from her canonization are some of the items on display at St. Thomas University.
A relic of Mother Teresa: a piece of her sari.
In the image at top, Mother Teresa stands next to Miami's second archbishop, Edward A. McCarthy.
Mother Teresa caresses an infant during her 1981 visit to Miami.
The late Father Ernesto Molano, who worked in the archdiocesan Tribunal, escorted Mother Teresa during her 1981 visit to Miami.
Sign at the entrance to the Archbishop John C. Favalora Archive and Museum at St. Thomas University.
Photography: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
MIAMI GARDENS | Art, faith and history are currently on display in the Archbishop John C. Favalora Archive and Museum at St. Thomas University.
The bold, colorful “Vessels of Love” of Panamanian artist Sheila Lichacz and black-and-white prints documenting St. Teresa of Kolkata’s visit to Miami share adjoining galleries in the second story of the school’s library.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Artist Sheila Lichacz's works hang next to a room-full of photographs from Mother Teresa of Kolkata's various visits to Miami.
Both exhibits opened Sept. 14 and will be on display through December.
“This is a very important event for St. Thomas University,” said Susan Angulo, vice-provost, during her introduction of Lichacz to an audience of students and staff who attended the exhibit’s opening.
Angulo described Lichacz’s work as a “marriage between the modern and the ancient” because of her melding of bold colors and pre-Columbian artifacts.
Lichacz’s works hang in the Vatican, the Holy Shrine of Cana in Galilee and the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. They share a common theme: faith.
She mixes oil and pastel images of “vessels” — colorful clay pots — with pieces of 1,200-year-old pottery and 12,000-year-old shells from the Monagrillo area of Panama.
The shells, for her, are a representation of the Virgin Mary. “The Virgin has appeared to me 1,500 times,” she said.
Lichacz credits her Catholic faith for allowing her to pull through 15 brain surgeries to remove 30 tumors, both malignant and benign.
She told the students who attended the opening that, regardless of their particular religion, “If you believe, and you believe in your God, he’s there waiting for you.”
In addition to her works, Lichacz lent the university three relics of St. John Paul II, whom she met. One of them is a zucchetto he wore as pope.
In the room adjacent to Lichacz’s exhibit are other relics, this time of Mother Teresa of Kolkata. They are surrounded by photographs that document her visits to Miami in 1974 and 1981.
The photographs are taken from the archives of The Voice and La Voz Católica, the archdiocesan newspapers that have documented the Catholic history of South Florida since 1959.
The Archbishop Favalora Archive and Museum at St. Thomas is now the depository of the newspaper’s images and files. The goal is to preserve and display them for future generations.
Admission to both exhibits is free. Call the library for exhibit hours, 305-628-6769.
