Celebrating the Feast of the “Earthly Trinity”

Holy Family with an Angel, ca. 1490,
tempera on canvas, transferred from
wood, Raffaellino del Garbo

Dómine Jesu Christe, qui Mariæ et Joseph súbditus, domésticam vitam ineffabílibus virtútibus consecrásti: fac nos, utriúsque auxílio, Famíliæ sanctæ tuæ exémplis ínstrui; et consórtium cónsequi sempitérnum: Qui vivas. 1

Sunday unfolded as a quiet pilgrimage through prayer, beauty, and memory.

We began the morning at Our Lady of Peace Church in Brooklyn, praying our weekly Latin Rosary for Servant of God King Francesco II of the Two Sicilies, asking for the advancement of his Cause for Beatification, and for the Canonization of his mother, Queen Maria Cristina di Savoia.

From Brooklyn, we crossed into Manhattan, where we attended the traditional Latin High Mass at Holy Innocents Church for the Feast of the Holy Family.

After Mass, we went uptown to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, wandering once more through the European Paintings galleries (1250–1800) and the Rodin gallery. There, we revisited old companions: Diego Velázquez, Nicolas Poussin, Rembrandt, Auguste Rodin, and Salvator Rosa. Their works, disciplined and uncompromising, reminded us that true art—like true worship—assumes order, form, and reverence for what transcends the individual.

The day moved seamlessly from altar to gallery, from prayer to paint, each reinforcing the other. Faith shaped vision; beauty confirmed belief. In a city that rarely pauses, the Feast of the Holy Family became a lived procession—through church, through museum halls, and through the inheritance of a civilization still worth guarding.

~ By Giovanni di Napoli, January 12th, Feast of San Bernardo da Corleone

(L) Saint Michael and the Dragon, ca. 1405, tempera on wood, gold
ground, Spanish (Valencian) painter active in Italy, early 15th century.
(R) Saint Lawrence Enthroned with Saints and Donors, 1440S,
tempera on wood, gold ground, Fra Filippo Lippi 

Christ's Descent into Hell, oil on wood, follower of Hieronymus Bosch

(L) The Adoration of the Magi, ca. 1475, oil and gold on oak,
Hieronymus Bosch. (R) The Rest on the Flight into Egypt,
ca. 1512-15, oil on wood, Gerard David 

Tobit Burying the Dead, 1640s, oil on canvas, Andrea di Lione

(L) Pilate Washing His Hands, 1663, oil on canvas, Mattia Preti (Il Cavalier Calabrese). (R) The Dream of Aeneas, 1660-65, oil on canvas, Salvator Rosa

Bandits on a Rocky Coast, 1655-60, oil on canvas, Salvator Rosa

(L) Self-Portrait, 1660, oil on canvas, Rembrandt. (R) Aristotle
with a Bust of Homer, 1653, oil on canvas, Rembrandt

The Toilet of Bathsheba, 1643, oil on wood, Rembrandt

(L) Philip IV (1605-1665), King of Spain, probably 1624, oil on canvas, Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez. (R) Margherita Gonzaga (1591-1632), Princess of Mantua, oil on canvas, Frans Pourbus the Younger

Marla Teresa (1638-1683), Infanta of Spain, 1651-54, oil on canvas, Velázquez

(L) Portinari (Maria Maddalena Baroncelli, born 1456), ca. 1470, oil on panel, Hans Memling. (R) The Young Saint John the Baptist, ca. 1480-82, tempera and oil on wood, Piero di Cosimo (Piero di Lorenzo di Piero d'Antonio)

The Temptation of Saint Mary Magdalen, ca. 1626, oil on canvas, Johann Liss

(L) A Maid Asleep, ca. 1656-57, oil on canvas, Johannes Vermeer. (R) Young
Woman with a Water Pitcher, ca. 1662, oil on canvas, Johannes Vermeer

(L) Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-Stricken of Palermo,
1624, oil on canvas, Anthony van Dyck. (R) Vanitas Still Life,
1603, oil on wood, Jacques de Gheyn II

(L) Marble statue of Dionysos seated on a panther, 1st-3rd century
AD, marble, François Duquesnoy. (R) Louis of France, The Grand Dauphin
(1661-1711), late 17th century, bronze, François Girardon

Eternal Spring, modeled ca. 1881, carved 1907, marble, Auguste Rodin

(L) Orpheus and Eurydice, modeled ca. 1887, carved 1893, marble, Auguste Rodin. (R) The Thinker, modeled ca. 1880, cast ca. 1910, bronze, Auguste Rodin

The Thinker, modeled ca. 1880, cast ca. 1910, bronze, Auguste Rodin

Madame X (Countess Anna-Elizabeth de Noailles),
ca. 1907, marble, Auguste Rodin

(L) Lachrymae, 1894-95, oil on canvas, Frederic, Lord Leighton.
(R) Oedipus and the Sphinx, 1864, oil on canvas, Gustave Moreau 

Island of the Dead, 1880, oil on wood, Arnold Böcklin

Notes:
(1) O Lord Jesus Christ, who being subject to Mary and Joseph, didst sanctify home life with unspeakable virtues: grant that, by the aid of both, we may be taught by the example of Thy Holy Family, and attain to eternal fellowship with it: Who livest. ~ Collect