Following a Catholic Father’s Day Mass on June 19, Bishop Andrew Cozzens helped lead a 1.5-mile eucharistic procession and rosary from Maternity of Mary in St. Paul through city streets. Men took turns carrying a large Pilgrimage Icon of St. Joseph, Husband, Father, and Worker.
Joshua LaFond, a founder of Holy Spirit Academy in Monticello, and a carpenter and business owner, commissioned and designed the icon. Eric Menzhuber, an art instructor at Holy Spirit Academy, professional oil painter since 2004 and sole proprietor of Menzhuber Art Studios, was asked to paint it.
Eric Menzhuber
Both men recently joined “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley to describe their experience creating the icon.
LaFond has felt the influence of St. Joseph from a young age. His grandmother had a home-schooling academy that she named St. Joseph Academy. “Her devotion to St. Joseph was very strong,” he said. “And that persisted through my whole life.”
LaFond described how he built a shrine at his college in New Hampshire in honor of St. Joseph. And while on a college visit out east with his daughter, he spoke with a Byzantine priest. During their conversation, LaFond described his strong devotion to St. Joseph and the priest suggested he should “do something” as, at the time, the year devoted to St. Joseph was upcoming.
While LaFond had a lot on his plate, he was excited about the idea of an icon honoring St. Joseph, picturing him as a good, strong man promoting marriage, life and the dignity of labor. “All three things are so desperately needed in our culture,” he said.
Even though he is an accomplished artist and fan of St. Joseph, Menzhuber initially declined LaFond’s request to paint the icon, as he was not experienced in traditional methods of iconography.
“I felt like I might not be able to do it justice,” he said. “I didn’t want to do something that would in any way lessen the beauty of the icon. So as long as all parties involved were OK with some slight variation — for example, oil painting instead of egg tempera — then eventually I came around and was willing to do it.”
One reason Menzhuber wanted to paint the icon is that, as a new father, he said he’s been relying on St. Joseph a lot more lately. “So, anything related to St. Joseph has been just a joy,” he said.
The icon is a large one, at 33 inches wide by 49 inches tall. To learn about the symbolism of those numbers and to hear the full interview, listen to this episode of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show. It airs at 9 p.m. July 9, 1 p.m. July 10 and 2 p.m. July 11 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Father Paul Hedman, who discusses how parishes can better connect with millennials, and Michael Griffin from St. Olaf, who describes how parishioners are teaming up with a nonprofit housing developer to create affordable housing in the heart of Minneapolis.
Listen to all of the interviews after they have aired at:
soundcloud.com/PracticingCatholic
tinyurl.com/PracticingCatholic (Spotify)
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