Global Christian Worship

One of my favorite artists is Sister Claire SMMI of India. She was born in 1937 (with the name Meera) into a high-caste (Naidu) Hindu family. At the age of 14 she ran away( from an about-to-be-arranged marriage) to Bangalore, and took refuge among Christian nuns who she had previously met. She joined the convent and added the initials of their particular religious order (Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate - SMMI).

“I felt that Jesus had a special message for me and wanted me to become a Christian and go into a convent,” she has said.
http://www.francoisdesales.com/Une-S-M-M-I-artiste-de-l-Eglise-en.html

Sister Claire has been a highly prolific artist with over 750 paintings. I’ll make several blog posts with her paintings of Holy Week. Most of the ones in this post come from the book ‘Art in Culture: Meditating with the Paintings of Sr. Claire, SMMI ’ (information below). I think that some of them must have come from full sets of ‘Stations of the Cross’ and ‘Seven Last Words of Christ’ that she painted, but I’ve not seen those whole sets - just posting what I have, since her art is hardly known at all outside of certain parts of India. This blog post includes 3 paintings of the Last Supper and 2 of the ‘Pieta.’

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Last Supper 1

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Jesus Meets His Mother (4th Station of the Cross)

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‘Behold thy son, behold thy mother’ (3rd final phrase of Christ)

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‘It is consummated’(6th final phrase of Christ)

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Pieta, Mother of Compassion 1 (13th Station of the Cross)

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Pieta, Mother of Compassion 2 (13th Station of the Cross)
The border Sr. Claire painted includes scenes from Christ’s birth to his death, from Christmas to Good Friday.

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At the Tomb

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Arunodaya*: Easter Dawn
(* अरुणोदय which is Hindi for ‘dawn’)

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Ascension

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Most images in this blog post are from the (1996) book ‘Art in culture: Meditating with the paintings of Sr. Claire, SMMI’ by Dr. Antony Kolencherry. Father Anthony is a Roman Catholic priest from India who currently lives, teaches and ministers in Switzerland. I am very grateful for his help in learning about Sister Claire and her paintings - he published two books which contain art by Sr. Claire with his Christian meditations. Apart from his two books, very little of her art is known outside of India. And this book (published by the Indian Institute of Spirituality in Bangalore) is out of print and almost impossible to find - I literally “searched the world over” to find a copy for sale!

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Last Supper 2

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This is set #1 of a 3-part series of blog posts highlighting Sr. Claire’s art connected to Holy Week. For set #2, see
http://globalworship.tumblr.com/post/140646751255/holy-week-art-from-india-sr-claire-set-2

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As of Feb 2016,, Sister Claire is still living at St. Mary’s Convent, Briand Circle, Chamarajpet, Bangalore (India). “She is weak and getting senile but in her sharing about her life history, she comes out alive and vibrant.”
http://dailyonart.blogspot.com/2012/06/sr-claire-smmi-artist-with-fr-george.html

In 2012 she was given the Assisi Award for Lifetime Achievement in Art by the Office for Social Communications of CBCI and Art. Forum to Nurture the Divine in Art.

Over a thousand people were present at the awards ceremony, The Archbishop of Bangalore, Bernard Moras,, spoke of Sister Claire’s paintings as an expression of her spirituality and her personal experience with God, an experience of faith in God. She prays, meditates and receives inspiration. Sister Claire told the meeting that Christian art is the work of God and that artists continue God’s creation. Pope Benedict XVI, who was attracted to her paintings, especially those of the Passion of Christ, announced that she was an “artist of the Church.”
http://www.francoisdesales.com/Une-S-M-M-I-artiste-de-l-Eglise-en.html

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Last Supper 3

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Here is an undated photo of Sister Claire with 2 of her ‘Last Supper’ scenes so you can see the size of her original art:

The bottom two images above are from Fr. Kolencherry’s (2003) book “Prayer in Culture: Meditating with the paintings of Sr. Claire SMMI.’

All images posted here belong to those who own their copyright, and are used here for educational, non-commercial purposes under Fair Use criteria.

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For Set 1 of Sr. Claire’s Christmas art, go to
http://globalworship.tumblr.com/post/136225392585/christmas-story-art-from-india-sr-claire-set-1

For Set 2 of her Christmas art, go to
http://globalworship.tumblr.com/post/136570180810/christmas-story-art-from-india-sr-claire-set-2

For Set 3 of her Christmas art, go to
http://globalworship.tumblr.com/post/136644066545/christmas-story-art-from-india-sr-claire-set-3