Symbols kept faith alive during persecution

Reminders of the early history of the Catholic Church climb a wall inside a religion classroom at St. Christopher School.

Anchors, fish and palm fronds are among the stark images painted onto pieces of crumbled brown paper by the school’s first- quarter seventh-grade art students. Their art captures actual symbols painted onto the nearly 2,000-year-old walls of the Roman catacombs – the secret, underground worship places of Christians living in the second and third centuries A.D.

“If Christians were caught gathering for the liturgy – sharing the Word with one another, breaking the bread – it was an automatic death sentence,” said Carol Pond, telling her seventh-grade religion students of the catacombs’ origins.

Because students study the New Testament in seventh grade – covering Jesus’ ministry and the persecution of Christians that followed his death – the catacombs made a perfect collaboration between the art and religion departments, Pond said.

“They are simple drawings, but they have a lot of meaning to them,” said seventh grader Tyler Wehrlin, joining a class discussion on the reasons behind the various symbols.

The anchor, for example, represents Christ, the anchor of our faith. An anchor, which holds a boat in place, also prevents a boat from wandering off.

“Anchors help people stay in community,” noted St. Christopher’s art teacher Dr. Shirley Becnel. “No matter where you travel, you can put down your anchor and continue your faith.”

Another interesting catacomb image is the one showing two fish tethered to a trident.

“The fish are not really tied to the trident; they are anchored to it, because the fisherman is going to recruit more fish – more people,” Becnel explained. “You could spear a fish and kill it, but instead you want to go out and recruit fish for Catholicism. You are ‘fishing’ for men,” she said.

The art teacher said the catacombs project used entirely recycled materials: the brown packing paper from a delivery of SmartBoards; leftover tempra paint from summer camp; broken charcoal; and donated, unused surgical sponges from East Jefferson Hospital.

The students smeared charcoal on top of the dried paint “so it looked like somebody had rubbed against it, or water had dripped on it, or mold had grown,” Becnel said.

“It’s our version of trying to create a cave in a flatland New Orleans,” Becnel said. “We tried to create dimensionality,” she said, adding that specks of yellow paint were added to the drawings to suggest the glow of candlelight on the cave walls.

“These people were hiding but still wanted to show that they were Christian,” Becnel said.

Seventh grader Megan Walters said she liked the project “because it teaches the history of our faith” through art.

“I’m hoping they’re going to realize the importance symbolism played in that early history of the church,” Pond said. “Symbols were the big lifeline of communication to keep the faith going. People were able to let one another know, ‘I am Christian,’ and be able to express it safely.”