Passion Project: Icons and holy relic inspire devotion at Western Maryland parish

OAKLAND – Bent over a wooden panel, Father William Keown carefully applied brushstrokes of reddish brown paint to his icon of the 10th Station of the Cross, Jesus stripped of his garments. Around him, a dozen of the pastor’s parishioners worked quietly at their own stations, each creating a unique depiction of a moment from Christ’s Passion. 

The amateur artists labored on a Thursday evening in March inside the parish hall at St. Peter the Apostle in Oakland, in Garrett County. 

“It’s been a challenge. It is more difficult than I thought it would be,” said Father Keown, pastor of St. Peter the Apostle Parish and St. Peter at the Lake in McHenry. “You can’t copy off your neighbor. Everybody is doing something different.” 

The class – part of an ongoing series led by parishioner Nancy Ensor – marks a new chapter in a two-year effort to integrate iconography into parish life. Unlike previous classes, where participants all “wrote” the same icon (icons are said to be “written,” not “painted,” because they tell a story), this group is taking on a more ambitious and personal project: creating 14 original icons, each representing a different Station of the Cross. The set was to be permanently installed at the St. Peter at the Lake in time for Good Friday. The Lake Center is located near Deep Creek Lake. 

“This is what God is calling me to do,” said Ensor, who has been teaching icon writing at St. Peter since 2022. “Every brush stroke is a prayer. Icons are prayers. I don’t know how we let this fall away from our traditions.” 

A traditional form of sacred art rooted in the Byzantine rite and Eastern Christian churches, icons are painted on wood and intended not simply as images but as tools for contemplation and veneration. 

Ensor first encountered iconography in 2009 through a class with Pennsylvania iconographer Jody Cole and has since dedicated herself to the discipline. For the current project, she designed each of the 14 Stations herself, beginning with research into classical versions of the scenes, then sketching the images onto tracing paper before transferring them to wood panels. 

“I added a lot of scenery,” she said. “I wanted it to be not just that antiseptic, Jesus and Simon, Jesus carrying the cross.” 

Each icon’s base image was created by Ensor, who also selected the colors, but the final composition – the details, patterns and shading – is the work of each student. To maintain a unified look across the set, Ensor personally painted the faces on each panel, a process she said requires up to 30 layers of paint. Once completed, she’ll varnish the icons to protect them from light and environmental damage. 

Among the 13 students are returning participants such as Beth Hart, who has taken multiple sessions and often gives her completed icons as gifts. 

“The detail is amazing,” Hart said. She requested the sixth station, Veronica wipes the face of Jesus, because she has a friend named Veronica. While she once felt indifferent toward icons, she said her attitude changed through hands-on experience and learning the history behind the tradition. 

Ensor said each piece will ultimately reflect the spiritual prayer of the person who painted it. Even when students follow the same design, no two icons are exactly alike. 

To keep things light, the group has adopted an unofficial motto: “There is nothing you can do that Nancy cannot fix.” 

The project is privately funded and intended not only as a devotional addition to the Lake Center but also as a sign of personal investment from the parish community. 

“It is more personal than buying something online,” Father Keown said. 

For Ensor, the real reward will come when the finished icons are installed and used in worship. 

“Everybody has been so amazing. They take instruction well,” she said. “I can’t wait to see these icons hanging in the Lake Center and see all the people venerating them.” 

Relic of the True Cross

Just as the icons invite the faithful into prayerful reflection through sacred imagery, another ancient tradition has been drawing quiet reverence within the parish.

On March 21, a small but devoted group gathered to venerate a relic believed to be a fragment of the True Cross on which Jesus was crucified. The relic, encased in glass, was passed down through the family of parishioner Mona McClanahan, whose great uncle, Father Lucien Socinski, received it in Rome in 1929.

“My sister took it as a memento,” McClanahan said, recalling when they found it among their great uncle’s belongings. Only later did they discover its sacred origin.

Father Socinski, ordained in Krakow, Poland, in 1928, served parishes in Canada until his death at 91 in 1997. The family still holds the original 1929 letter of authenticity from the Prefect of the Apostolic Sacrarium that gives permission to expose the relic for veneration.

“We’ve had it here in the parish from her outreach,” said Sheila Saab, the parish’s office manager. “It’s beautiful.”

Displayed after the faithful prayed the rosary and Stations of the Cross in March, the relic inspired quiet awe. Parishioners knelt before it, some touching it gently.

“It is just a blessing to be able to share it,” said McClanahan, who lives in Virginia with her husband. “We will happily bring it to whomever wants it.”

Email Katie V. Jones at kjones@CatholicReview.org

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