Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas

06/18/2026

Our final Marian reflection this season is offered by Dr. Erika Kidd who shared her insights on John Collier's Annunciation:

This May, my students and I finished our semester-long study of Mary in my undergrad and graduate Mary courses.

The Annunciation by John Collier always prompts heated conversation among my students.

The painting is deeply traditional, immediately recognizable as an annunciation. Mary wears blue and holds a book. There is an angel, a dove, some lilies. The painting is also traditional in that Collier sets the scene in the present day. Just as renaissance Marys are dressed up in renaissance garb, this contemporary Mary could be our neighbor or our daughter. But we are unused to seeing Mary looking so much like girls we know.

Of course, I love art that shows a not-so-ordinary Mary, art that shows Mary as a Roman matron or as the Mother of God on the throne. I love art that reminds us of Mary’s full splendor and dignity.

But I have a place in my heart for this Mary too, a child who welcomes a child, as she steps out on the welcome mat. Collier’s painting hints at the splendor of Mary’s soul: he makes her house a palace, unlike the other modest homes on the street. But in depicting Mary as a young, girl-next-door with untied shoes, he reminds us too that God still speaks and that we are each day invited to imitate Mary in her attentiveness to His voice.

Dr. Erika Kidd
Associate Professor

Annunciation, John Collier (©2021), hillstream.com

06/12/2026

The next time you hear "fruit of the earth and work of human hands" as the priest blesses the altar, you might think of Sr. Mary John Kramer '20, Catholic Studies alumnus AND manager of the altar bread operations at the Cistercian Valley of Our Lady Monastery in rural Iowa County, Wisconsin.

Catholic Rural Life beautifully shares the story of her hidden monastic works as she makes bread for the altar.

Learn about the spiritual work of the religious sisters who make the altar bread that is consecrated in the Mass across the United States.

06/11/2026

Dr. Billy Junker, director of Graduate Studies, offered our third Marian reflection on Caravaggio's "Madonna and Child with St. Anne (Dei Palafrenieri)":

Caravaggio’s Madonna and Child with St. Anne was commissioned in 1605 by the Archconfraternity of Saint Anne of the Grooms to be hung in the church of the same name in the Vatican—Sant’Anna de Pallafrenieri. The painting was finished in April of 1606 but was exhibited in the Church of Saint Anne for only a couple months before being removed and sold to Cardinal Borghese.

The painting is a creative allegory of Genesis 3:15, a passage that came to be known as the “first gospel” or protoevangelium because it contains the first promise of our salvation found in scripture: “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.”

A vibrant Mary in the virginal bloom of maternal youth carefully positions the foot of her naked and uncircumcised child Jesus over her own as they jointly crush the head of a twisted serpent. Meanwhile, a visibly aged and even somewhat cadaverous St. Anne in muted dress glances down upon the action with an ambiguous expression. It is not her most flattering moment, and perhaps the reason why this painting was not displayed in the Church of Saint Anne for very long.

In this painting, I think, Caravaggio wants us to see Christ as the new Adam born of Mary, the new Eve. The spiritual innocence and bodily vigor of both are contrasted to all those tainted by the effects of the Fall—including St. Anne. He wants us to see Christ as both dependent upon his mother in the order of nature and prior to her in the order of grace. And finally, I believe he wants to accentuate Mary’s unique cooperation with Christ in the fulfillment of his divine mission.

06/04/2026

The second Marian reflection in May was offered by Assistant Professor Anne Marie Thompson '14: "Expecting the Arrival of the Truth"

I was moved when I learned (and then started to notice) that many depictions of the Annunciation show Mary with a book. Particularly in Medieval books of hours, like this example from fifteenth-century France, Mary appears to be just interrupted from her reading as she looks up to hear the angel Gabriel’s announcement. But unlike Gabriel’s banner, on which we can clearly read “Ave maria gratia plena,” the text of Mary’s book is intentionally fuzzy and therefore symbolically resonant. The pages might be the psalms that she is praying, or the Old Testament prophecies that point to this very moment, or—perhaps most poignantly—a representation of her flesh about to conceive the Word.

It’s not surprising, I suppose, that Our Lady Seat of Wisdom is bookish. Reading is the visible manifestation of her inward posture of contemplative pondering and receptive attention. In this, Mary is a beautiful model for Catholic Studies students and faculty who, in desiring to love God with their whole heart, soul, and mind, seek the unified experience of faith and reason, spiritual life and academic work. The great philosopher of attention Simone Weil proposes that the practice of attention required by school studies bears fruit in prayer, which she defines as “the orientation of all the attention of which the soul is capable toward God.” The image of Mary with her book illustrates how reading and praying are really one thing: expecting the arrival of the Truth.

Book of Hours (Use of Paris): Annunciation, c. 1420. Follower of Boucicaut Master (French, Paris, active about 1410–25). The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1942.169.50.a.

06/01/2026

Last week, Catholic Studies hosted a 3-day seminar to explore the work of Christopher Dawson (1889-1970), a renowned British Catholic historian.

Attendees dove into Dawson's "Religion and the Rise of Western Culture" and examined his original articles and papers, the largest collection of its kind which is owned by the University of St. Thomas Library.

This inaugural event, attended by Dawson scholars and enthusiasts from across the country, was co-sponsored by the Boethius Institute, Catholic International University, and the Joan and Bill Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage at Loyola University - Chicago.

05/28/2026

Throughout the month of May, Catholic Studies faculty offered their reflections on pieces of Marian art. They are so lovely and so Catholic Studies.

If you didn't receive them via email - or even if you did - we will share them here over the next few weeks, starting with Dr. John Boyle's ...

May is the month we honor Mary, our mother. To celebrate, I offer here a reflection on one of my favorite works of Marian art: Matthias Grünewald’s Madonna and Child in his Isenheim Altarpiece.

A challenge for the Catholic artist is how to communicate invisible reality through our senses. Grünewald’s infant Jesus is naked, and Mary holds him in a tattered blanket. He does not look comfortable. Mary is clothed in exquisite, sumptuous finery in stark contrast to the rags of the naked child.

This is not an historically accurate portrait, and Grünewald does not intend it to be, except for the mother’s gaze of affection.

So, what is happening? In the very ordinary human reality of clothing, Grünewald communicates the mystery of the Incarnation. God Himself, the eternal Son of the Father, has become man. That is an infinite step downward. It is to be naked in a tattered rag. He has entered into our state so far from his own.

At the same time, he is raising us up to a new and unimagined life. The first upon whom he conferred this new life was his mother in her sinlessness. He has clothed her in consummate spiritual riches, so beautiful and entirely undeserved. And he has done it by becoming one of us, taking on the tattered rags that he might clothe us in finery beyond our dreams.

And our response? To hold him close and to gaze upon him with affection and gratitude. The Catechism describes the process as God comes to meet man and man’s response to God. Grünewald expresses this foundational reality of Christian existence in the physical concreteness of the scene. So much to ponder.

John F. Boyle
Chair of the Department

Matthias Grünewald, Isenheim Altarpiece, 1512-1516

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05/25/2026

Thank you all for an amazing semester. We will see you in the fall!

05/22/2026

Impressive! Nine of our MA students presented their master's theses to the Catholic Studies community on Wednesday (pictured here); 16 will participate in the University of St. Thomas commencement ceremony this weekend.

They are attorneys, teachers, priests, businesspeople, social workers, and empty nesters. They are impressive people who have deeply explored the impact of the Incarnation on human thought and culture and have integrated this vision into their lives. We are proud of their scholarship, who they are, and their contributions to the world. Congratulations, CSMA Class of 2026!

05/18/2026

On Saturday, 11 Guadalupe's Scholars will graduate with the University of St. Thomas' Class of 2026. This is our largest graduating class of Guadalupe's Scholars since the program began 25 years ago!

Today, nine took a break from finals prep to capture some photos outside Sitzmann Hall and on campus.

This group of grads is going on to do great things, including: computer programming, operations and supply chain management, Catholic education, children's therapy, and graduate school.

We are proud of all of our soon-to-be alumni. ¡Felicidades!

05/04/2026

Tomorrow May 5 at 6:45pm! Dr. Kidd will present “Attention and Devotion: Living Well in a Distracted Age” at Nativity of Mary (Bloomington) Theology and Brews event. Stop in for a thought-provoking presentation and a cool beverage.