Patron of the UST College of Fine Arts and Designs

Feast Day: February 18

At the corner of España Boulevard and Padre Noval Street is an eight-storey edifice emblazoned with the name “Beato Angelico Building.” It houses the University’s visual artists hailing from College of Architecture and the College of Fine Arts and Design.

But who is Beato Angelico?

Prior to his beatification in 1982, Beato Angelico was known widely as Fra Angelico, literally, the Angelic Friar. Born Guido di Pietry, he was an exceptional early Renaissance painter whose works exuded calmness and profound religiosity.

The would-be Blessed Angelico entered a Dominican convent in Fiesole in 1418 and became a friar about seven years later. Apart from ministering to the faithful, he used his God-given talent for the visual arts by first serving as an illuminator of missals and other religious books. He later on advanced to painting altarpieces and other panels.

Angelico brought his art wherever he went: from Fiesole to Florence, and finally, to the Vatican.

Fra Angelico died on March 18, 1455, in a Dominican convent in Rome. His remains were buried in the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Five centuries later, now-Saint John Paul II beatified him on October 3, 1982, and declared him Patron of Catholic artists in 1984.

Source:

• Catholic.org. (n.d.). Fra Angelico. (accessed on July 6, 2015)