What do Icons, the Catholic Worker, and Churches-in-the-Round Have in Common?

If you find yourself in St. Paul, Minnesota, this Fall, consider making a pilgrimage to Saint Catherine University, where you can visit an art exhibit by liturgical movement advocate and Catholic Worker artist, Adé Bethune (1914-2002). The exhibit, titled “Adé Bethune: The Power of One Person,” runs until December 19^th, 2014, and features icons, prints, and artifacts which give a fascinating glimpse into the breadth and magnitude of this twentieth-century Roman Catholic woman’s work.

Bethune modeled the mid-century classic liturgical movement’s desires for social renewal inspired by the Liturgy. Her icons envisioned the saints as members of the working class, and her liturgical-architectural designs emphasized participation of all members through all their senses (e.g., increased visibility, better lighting, and improved acoustics with churches-in-the-round!). Aside from this, Bethune paid special attention to the cultural location of the people who would be participating in the Liturgy (e.g., using local materials and local saints to decorate church walls; better yet, she had the locals help decorate!). Through her art and design, Adé Bethune stressed the dignity of all individuals in the great Body of Christ.

If you’re wondering what Adé Bethune, a Belgian immigrant and resident of Newport, Rhode Island, has to do with central Minnesota, the answer lies in the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, St. Paul Province. In 1939, Bethune (at 25 years of age) gave her first public lecture for the Catholic Arts Association at its national meeting, which was held at the (then) College of Saint Catherine in St. Paul, MN. While at Saint Catherine, Bethune also spoke with the novices regarding liturgical art.  Then, modeling the liturgical movement’s interest in active participation as well as education, Bethune worked with some of the novices to paint a “large St. Joseph” (http://library.stkate.edu/spcoll/ABC.html). This experience began a long friendship with several of the sisters there, including Cyril Clare Casey, CSJ (Mistress of Postulants), Judith Stoughton, CSJ (who later wrote a biography of Bethune), and Elizabeth Delmore, CSJ (director of the library).

Decades later, Stoughton and Delmore invited Bethune to donate her vast collection of art, supplies, books, and papers to Saint Catherine. These materials are there, well-catalogued, and ready for study, housed in the Ade Bethune Collection. If you find time to visit this exhibit or, better yet, make an appointment to explore the Collection, you’ll find that, for Adé Bethune, drawing pictures of saints, designing round churches, and involvement in social action were, in fact, inseparable.