PAINTER FRIAR OF RENAISSANCE TO BE MADE BLESSED

FRA ANGELICO. the Renaissance Florentine painter of the Nativity (above) and other great works, has been speeded on his way to official beatification, thanks to a decision by Pope John Paul to cut out some formalities of the usual procedure.
In a document sent to the Rome • headquarters of the Dominican order this month the Pope set February 18 as the date when Blessed Angelico may be honoured in Catholic liturgies throughout the world. The document bestowing the honour on the 15thcentury painter was a "motu proprio," meaning that the Pope was acting on his own Initiative.
With the document, Pope John Paul short-circuited the usual Vatican procedures leading to the beatification and eventual canonization of prospective saints. The process for beatification usually takes years and includes an investigation of the candidate's life, writings and heroic practice of virtue and the approval of at least two miracles attributed to the candidate's intercession.
The cause for the beatification and canonization of Fra Angelico had never been formally introduced at the Vatican. But he was popularly known among Italians as "Blessed Angelico."
Born in the Tuscany region of Italy in 1378, Fra Angelico was also known as Giovanni da Fiesole and Guido da Viechio. His most famous paintings include the Deposition from the Cross, hanging in St Mark's Museum in Florence, and Christ Appears to Mary Magdalene, a fresco also at St Mark's Museum.
A monk of the Dominican order, he died in Rome in 1455 and is buried in Santa Marta sopra Minerva Church in Rome.