What's Happening

September 19, 2024, Adrian, Michigan – “If you can see it, you can be it” reads a line from the popular children’s book, What You Can See, You Can Be by David A. Anderson. 

Sister Cheryl Liske, OP, referred to that line in her reflection during a special September 3, 2024, Mass celebrating the Feast of St. Phoebe, Deacon, at St. Catherine Chapel on the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse Campus.

For centuries, Christians have not typically seen or heard about St. Phoebe, a deacon of the early Christian Church at Cenchreae near Corinth. She was proclaimed a deacon by St. Paul in Romans 16:1-2 – yet Catholics seldom hear St. Paul’s commendation of her to the Romans.

But now, thanks to an icon of St. Phoebe, Deacon, written by Sister Cheryl and donated to the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse, visitors will be able to see St. Phoebe and remember her function as a deacon in the church at Cenchreae. The icon was blessed during the Mass celebrating her Feast Day.

Sister Cheryl’s reflection was based on the Mass readings for St. Phoebe, Romans 16:1-2 and Matthew 26:6-13, in which a woman approaches Jesus during dinner and anoints his head with expensive oil – to the condemnation of many. Through the years, Catholics have very seldom heard these readings proclaimed – in spite of St. Paul’s presentation of St. Phoebe to the Church of Rome and Jesus’ proclamation that “wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her” (Mt 26:13), Sister Cheryl said.

Sister Cheryl said her icon portrays St. Phoebe at the port in Corinth, “ready to set sail for Rome as Paul’s ambassador to the church there, where she will not only deliver the letter but probably read it out to people assembled in local house churches.” Just as St. Paul commends Phoebe to the Romans, he commends her to us in a special way, she added. 

During her reflection, Sister Cheryl also spoke on the use of icons throughout Christian history. After the creation of images was banned in 754, Empress Theodora restored the veneration of icons in the year 843, Sister Cheryl said.

“From then on, Christians have a unique relationship to the art of image making due to the theology of incarnation,” Sister Cheryl explained. “The belief that God took on human flesh while remaining fully God and fully human empowers Christians to image the Redeemer and saints without fear.”

Sister Cheryl was inspired years ago to create icons when she realized that Dominicans know so little of the first women in St. Dominic’s convent in Prouilhe, France. “I started a drawing of the first women of Prouilhe, and then I realized I was in way over my head if I didn’t take some classes on iconography,” she recalled.

She took an icon-painting workshop in San Antonio in 2019, learning the various techniques – even in laying down the paint layers and choosing the board. “It always moves from dark to the light,” Sister Cheryl explained. “Icon spirituality is moving from chaos to the light of the world.” 

Sister Cheryl said it takes a lot of time for her to create an icon, beginning with researching the person who is being represented. In the case of St. Phoebe, Sister Cheryl had to look into the way that upper-class women of St. Phoebe’s time dressed and how they looked. 

Through this research, icons also give form or a new form to images of God and the saints, Sister Cheryl explained. “They’re simply images that point to other things.” Although she hasn’t yet created the icon of the first women of Prouilhe, she painted various other icons: of St. Augustine, St. Monica, St. David, and now St. Phoebe. “I want to make them real so that people can relate to them,” she said.

Using the standardized symbolism of iconography, Sister Cheryl depicted St. Phoebe holding a scroll, a symbol of her call to proclaim the Word of God. “Here as a woman who not only led a house church, but she was a benefactor of St. Paul,” she said. “She was an important woman, and I think that’s important for women today to see. Being a minister in the Church is not a choice out of scarcity but it’s a choice of people with talent and expertise, called to serve God’s ministry.”

For Sister Cheryl, creating icons is a form of preaching – and it is recognized as such by iconographers. “There’s an anointing of the hands of the icon painter and a prayer to be worthy, and a prayer that the people who gaze on the icon will benefit from seeing the icon,” she said. 

“Icons expand your vision of who can represent God and saints and holiness,” she added. “I think that that’s the spirituality I’m looking towards. My way of acting is to create some icons that haven’t been seen before so people can see who God is in a different light.” 

She encouraged anybody interested in taking up iconography to attend workshops because of the resulting sense of community. “There are people who talk about and do icons who have a deep spirituality, and it’s a good group to be with,” she added.
 

Caption for above photo: Sister Cheryl Liske, OP, with her icon of St. Phoebe, Deacon