“…we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses...” (Hebrews 12:1)

The Letter to the Hebrews calls our attention to heaven, to our great High Priest, to the angels and to saints. We are drawn to the conjunction of heaven and earth, called in the Blessed Sacrament to remember our great High Priest, “after the order of Melchizedek.” The heavenly communion is supplemented, grace upon grace, through a communion of saints, a “great cloud of witnesses” of whom we may ask intercession. We find this, we will note first of all, in the very commemorative plaque on the pavement at the main entrance to the church, marking the blessing of the site of the Church and Monastery on November 1, 1957, the Feast of All Saints. We may then even step back to again notice the beautiful church doors designed by Father Peter Sidler, who drew upon Ephesians 2:19 to remind us that we are “fellow citizens with the saints.” And some of these saints we evoke by name in the side chapels of our own church. Yet this particular communion, this side patronage, remains for many within a cloud of unknowing. We should perhaps pay closer attention to these witnesses whose presence is worked into the very fabric of this building, hidden in plain sight.

The church itself, most realize, is dedicated to Saint Gregory the Great, who with Our Lady Queen of Peace is one of the two principal patrons of the monastery. And the slype offers us visual reminders of St. George of Cappadocia, St. Peter, St. Benedict, and St. Catherine of Alexandria. Of the side chapels, those of the Blessed Sacrament and of Our Lady remain active, visible, and present to our conscious awareness and our prayer. Yet the remaining side chapels have generally fallen into some disuse, at least the use of daily Masses said by members of the monastic community. This daily use had been the practice, particularly in the few years between the church’s construction and the liturgical changes stemming from the Second Vatican Council. But while the personal Mass has ceased, the nave still contains its four chapels, with altars bearing relics of these patrons, and with visible though overlooked reminders of their patronage. Clockwise from Our Lady’s chapel, they are dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, Saint Joseph, Saint Basil the Great, and Saint Benedict. The upstairs gallery also contains four chapels, though these are more difficult to distinguish from within “the cloud of witnesses”: Augustine of Canterbury, Bede the Venerable, The North American Martyrs. We also find a statue of Saint Nicholas, though it is not actually situated in a chapel, located in the upper narthex (or entrance area) of the church.

To address the anonymity which clouded the patronage of these eight adjunct spaces, Abbot Matthew Stark considered some years ago how we might visibly recognize these saints. To this end, the engraving in the Saint Joseph Chapel, a bas-relief of “The Flight to Egypt,” was commissioned by Abbot Matthew and his brother Dennis Stark and donated in honor of their mother, Mrs. Helen Stark. The carving is noted for depicting the second, older child, whom some traditions associate with a first marriage of Saint Joseph. The elder child walks behind the mother and infant, who are led by Joseph.

John Hegnauer’s bas-relief of “The Flight into Egypt”

The work was created by John Hegnauer, whose own story is woven into the Abbey’s history through his connection to the Benson family in Newport, Rhode Island and his work at The John Stevens Shop. Founded in 1705, The John Stevens Shop has been handed down remarkably through just two families in over three centuries. John Howard Benson, who designed our church’s main altar, purchased the shop in 1927, working to preserve the arts of stone carving, engraving, and calligraphy. The shop was passed on to his son, John Everett Benson, and later to his grandson Nick Benson, its current proprietor. Hegnauer met Richard Benson – son of John Howard, himself an innovative artist and photographer, and later dean of the Yale School of Art – while the two were in Chicago and still quite young. He then  made his way to Newport in 1962, joining in engraving work with John Everett. One can truly enter into the life of the shop in the mesmerizing documentary Final Marks, which follows some of their work, including engraving at the John F. Kennedy Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The quiet 49-minute film is well worth viewing, thoughtfully casting their work even as contemplative, monkish. One can find Hegnauer’s engraving scattered in various significant locations, such as at Harvard, on the blue sundial in Dudley Garden behind the Lamont Library. Designed by William J.H. Andrewes, former curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments at Harvard, it reads Daylight Savings Time, a rarity for sundials. Heganuer later taught a course in lettering at the Rhode Island School of Design. (Two further notes: Nick Benson spoke at the School in 2017 about his work. And to connect more of the dots, we can mention that Richard Benson’s daughter, Abby Benson, has the distinction of being the School’s first female graduate, and currently serves on our Board of Regents).

The patronage of the other three lower chapels came to be depicted somewhat more subtly, each with a small bronze icon. These three icons were procured through the former Greenbrier Manufacturing Company, a small business formerly operating in Warren, Rhode Island. In the early 1980’s, hoping that the side chapels could incorporate some indication of their patronage, Abbot Matthew spoke with Fr. Joseph Santos, now pastor of the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus in Providence and long an oblate of the Abbey, who helped to procure these icons. Fr. Santos had worked over the summer for Greenbrier while he was a student in college, having become particularly interested after reading an article about the company in the Providence Journal. His connection to the Portsmouth community had started when he was a young parishioner at St. Elizabeth’s in Bristol, and monks of the Abbey would come to celebrate Masses for the parish. Fr. Santos notes that such smaller bronze icons became more popular in the 19^th and 20^th century and were known as “traveling icons,” as they could be transported more easily with no worry about scratching or other damage. The Saint Benedict icon’s provenance is not entirely clear, but it likely stemmed from a design from the Benedictine monastery of Chevetogne in Belgium, a bi-ritual monastery with both the Russian/Byzantine Rite and the Latin Rite. The Greebrier pieces were often reproductions of pieces reproduced by the monastery of Chevetogne, depicting well-known icons of the eastern church.

In this chapel one finds an icon representing John the Baptist, who carries Christ in the basket-like container he cradles with his left forearm. This appears in many icons of the Baptist, and the container is a “diskos” or paten, foretelling the Eucharistic sacrifice. With his right hand, John points to Christ, expressing the Baptist’s prophetic role as the Forerunner of the Messiah. It is common in orthodox icons to depict John with wings, in order to convey his primacy among prophets, as a holy messenger of God. The overall representation is called “Angel of the Desert,” not to proclaim the Baptist to be an angel, but based on the root of that word, which is “messenger.” The scroll he carries in these icons typically is: “I saw and witnessed concerning him, ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.’” (Sources: iconreader; russianicons)

“The Angel of the Desert”

The chapel of Basil the Great is the most active visually, as it both commemorates our Honor Roll of alumni killed in service to the country and contains the orthodox cross designed by Fr. Wilfred Bayne. This eastern-style cross connotes Basil, who is also portrayed in the Three Holy Hierarchs icon. This icon represents Basil in the center, surrounded by Gregory Nazianzus (“The Theologian”) on his left, with full beard and hair, and John Chrysostom on his right, with high forehead). Above them is represented the “Holy Napkin,” its image based on the story of King Agbar of Edessa, who sought healing from Christ, requesting an image be produced and believing that if he saw it he would be healed. Christ himself brought a cloth to his face, leaving his image impressed upon it, similarly to the Veil of Veronica, and this image healed the king. Basil was born in Caesarea in Cappadocia in the 4^th century, of a pious family that included Gregory of Nyssa, his brother. Among his many involvements, which included teaching rhetoric and practicing law, he eventually came to the monastic life, establishing a monastic community in Annesi. He later was promoted to bishop of Caesarea, joining the struggle against the widespread heresy of Arianism. He is noted as an early father of monasticism, revered in both the east and west, and influential upon Saint Benedict.

The Three Holy Hierarchs

Completing the circuit of the lower chapels, it is, of course, entirely appropriate for the monastery church to appeal to the intercession of Saint Benedict. His side chapel contains an icon of more modern origins, of a design similar to that employed in icons of Chevetogne, a foundation of the twentieth century dedicated to ecumenical prayer to unite the eastern and western churches. The icon depicts Holy Father Benedict, holding a scroll that elicits his Rule. We see Benedict in his monastic cowl, his hood accentuating a contemplative spirit. One senses a distinct solemnity in his face, which seems to convey a sense of the great Benedictine virtue of humility. Chevetogne provides the following description: "Venerable Benedict" in the habit of an eastern monk, bearing a scroll with the text "Come, children, hear me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord"(Ps 33:11).

Holy Father Benedict

These four lower chapels of the nave seem to outline a connection to the deep roots of our faith, as to the distinctive monastic roots of our community. With John the Baptist, we find a communion stretching back to the Old Testament, and to God’s fulfillment of His promises to His people. With Joseph, we are drawn more fully to the Holy Family itself. Basil and Benedict return us to the origins of cenobitic life, as both serve as foundational figures in the history of the community life of monks.

We will, for now, allow the Witnesses of the upper chapels to remain enshrouded to some degree in that Great Cloud. We mark this for future reference, noting, in any case, their patronage in Augustine of Canterbury, Bede the Venerable, and the North American Martyrs, and also our intriguing Saint Nicholas, whose image surely reminds of the monastery’s work with youth in its School.