As a painter and designer of religious imagery I was looking for a Franciscan theme to work on. During one of our monthly fraternity meetings in Norwich 2024, we discussed St Francis’s Stigmata and coincided that we all have received some sort of spiritual “stigma” in our lives: a sign that we recognise as having been chosen to suffer like Jesus did. This made me pick the Stigmata as the theme for a digitally produced design, which I completed on Inkscape, a graphic design software suite. My research consisted of Google image searches, reading about St Bonaventure’s ideas on medieval mysticism, descriptions of the event by Thomas of Celano and St Bonaventure, as well as Ezekiel's vision of the seraphim (Ezekiel 1:4-28). I then meditated for several weeks trying to picture the moment when the Seraph appeared to St Francis. I soon realised that this vision, what St Francis must have seen, rather than a picture of him looking at the Seraph, was what I had to work on.
My image of the Seraph shows the San Damiano crucifix without the actual wooden cross in order to erase the physical barrier between the Seraph and Christ; however, it is inevitable to see the actual cross even if it isn't there due to our familiarity with the iconic image. This is the image of Christ that first spoke to St Francis telling him to rebuild His Church, and perhaps this is also the image of Christ that St Francis saw when he received the Stigmata. The Stigmata resemble eyes that come out of Jesus's wounds and actively seek St Francis, who is the “looker”. But so are we looking at the seraph; and so are the Stigmata searching for us too when we look at this image. The background shows a horizon and the sky symbolising the created world where this miracle happened. The circle gives us a focal point on the Seraph and also the idea of completeness and perfection: It is the moment when St Francis achieves total union with Jesus. On the frame around the circle, we have a partial image of the Norwich cathedral labyrinth emphasising the idea that we can find Christ in the centre. The alpha and the omega place the image on another circle, an eternal one outside of time. In contrast, the vines under the circle remind us of St Francis’s focus on nature, bringing us back to Earth and finite time. The main colours are reds and browns conveying the idea of the power of God through the Seraph as described by St Bonaventure, and also in Ezekiel's vision of the seraphim.
My design of the Seraph is a visual aid for a spiritual meditation on the moment St Francis received the Stigmata. It invites us to see what St Francis must have seen, to feel the way he felt, and to recognise and meditate on the meaning of our own spiritual stigmata.Felix Chivite-Matthews
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