Local Sister’s book on St. Paul
The Daughters of St. Paul in Redwood City, whose mission is to spread the Gospel through books and media, have a new author in their midst. Daughter of St. Paul Superior Sister Armanda Santos has written a book that combines her expertise in religious art and the life of St. Paul.
The book was released at the end of 2008 after Sister Armanda completed her master's degree in theology at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley. Sister Armanda concentrated on religion and the arts. Her idea for a book discovering the apostle through art started out as her thesis.
Each chapter includes an icon or a painting from a scene in the life of St. Paul. Sister Armanda explains the symbolism and detail of the artwork, facts about the artist and his work and a spiritual reflection to help the reader draw closer to God. The end of each chapter closes with a prayer corresponding to its image and reflection.
Sister Armanda chose her blood sister, Daughter of St. Paul Sister Germana Santos, who also belongs to the Redwood City congregation, to write the prayers for each of the 13 chapters. "She's really a great writer for prayers," Sister Armanda said. "Instantly, I just thought of her."
The second of five children, Sister Armanda followed her older Sister Germana into the congregation even though she felt the religious calling first. "I was the one who always wanted to be a nun since my First Holy Communion," Sister Armanda said.
Extraordinarily, Sister Armanda was four when she received her First Holy Communion.
Sister Armanda was born and raised in the Azores. In the 1960s, when she was 11, her family moved to the United States to settle in San Leandro. No one speaking a word of English, her father, who had been a policeman, had to work in a factory. None of the children were accepted in a Catholic school.
Today, Sister Armanda's devout elderly mother, who had once dreamed of becoming a nun herself, suffers from Alzheimer's and Sister Germana takes care of her. Sister Armanda's parents met when her father was suffering from tuberculosis and her mother was a nurse.
"As a family we've always been close," Sister Armanda said. "I was always very close to my dad."
The book is dedicated to her father, who died in 2001.
"The idea (of the book) is to look at art, not just as something that's to be admired, which it should be, but to look at art also from a contemplative stance and to see what we can learn from this artwork in terms of the life of St. Paul," Sister Germana said. She explained that her sister, the author, had a capacity to look at a piece of art and beauty and see things that others do not.
"I would say it's for the everyday person who enjoys reading and wants to know about St. Paul," said Sister Germana, adding that the book is written in an accessible style even though the background is theology.
The art in the book comes from Caravaggio, Raphael, Rembrandt and nine other artists.
The first chapter, "A Heart Transformed," discusses Caravaggio's image of St. Paul on the ground after falling off his powerful white horse (see photo on Page 10). Sister Armanda writes: "We who daily set out in pursuit of Christ would do well to remind ourselves that Jesus longs for our encounter with him even more than we do. This encounter with Christ must flourish into a relationship that will transform us, just as it did Paul."
The prayer that accompanies the image emphasizes what is most important: "Lord Jesus, I meet you in so many ways, sometimes in silence and prayer, or by stumbling to the ground of my existence.... Like Paul, let me know how to be companioned by others, led by those around me who can point out the way, because the journey is very lonely without them."
"FACING THE APOSTLE: PAUL'S IMAGE IN ART," by Sister Armanda Santos, FSP. Pauline Books. Paperback, 144 pages. $16.95.
(By Audrey Cabrera Amort
Audrey Cabrera Amort is a Catholic San Francisco intern)
