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The O'Connell Paintings
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The large
painting above the altar is the work of David O'Connell, who also
designed and painted the stations of the cross and the archangels in the
Blessed Sacrament chapel
The rear wall of the sanctuary is panelled in golden sycamore. |
The painting portrays Christ Crucified, with a montage of images reminding us that the Holy Mass is the continual re-presentation of Our Lord's sacrifice for our Salvation.
The Sacrament of the Eucharist, with the real presence of Christ in our midst, is the source and summit of our faith as Catholics.
In the words of St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), a contemporary of St Richard,
"Most loving Father, grant that I may one day see face to face your beloved Son, whom I now intend to receive under the veil of the sacrament and who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever, one God world without end. Amen.
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The Stations of the Cross
These Stations were painted by David O'Connell (1898-1976) and hung in the church in Chichester in the early 1960s.
Father Jonathan Martin, while at St Richard's, wrote this description:
"It has to be said that this particular set of the Stations of the Cross is not everyone's "cup of tea". The style of these paintings is quite different from the style of the Stations that usually adorn the walls of our churches. There is an apparent inaccessibility about that demands a certain amount of time and energy on the part of the onlooker. But time spent lingering over each painting will be
repaid.
"The distinctive style of O'Connell's work, the "scored canvas", if you like, powerfully conveys the brutality and violence associated with the last journey of Christ. It peaks at the Crucifixion, and then, as Christ alone hangs on the cross, the
freneticism subsides and a kind of exhausted tranquility takes over."
(Taken with permission from The Stations of the Cross a booklet by Fr Jonathan Martin, 1999.)
David O'Connell was an artist who instituted the Catenians in Chichester and was their President. He was born in 1895, served in the trenches in World War I, trained as a commercial artist, but his specialism was religious painting. He was appointed Artistic Advisor to St Richard's. He died in 1976.
