PASSING TO THE FATHER

 

Sad as it is to lose a powerful figure in our Church, we rejoice that POPE EMERITUS BENEDICT XVI has gone to the Father.

His papacy was short, (almost eight years), and yet he contributed much to Church doctrine and will be considered one of the six most significant Catholic theologians of the 20th century, along with Karl Rahner, S.J., Yves Congar, O.P., Romano Guardini (one of my favorites), Henri de Lubac, S.J., and Hans Urs von Balthasar. His published works include over 60 books, several of which we use for lessons at Matins.

For me his greatest contribution is his great devotion to the Eucharist, placing the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist at the very heart of  our Catholic faith.  In “God Is Charity” he wrote: the Eucharist draws us into Jesus’ act of self-oblation…we enter into the very dynamic of His self-giving.

Of course as Benedictines we were thrilled when he chose the name of our founder. “The name ‘Benedict’ also calls to mind the extraordinary figure of the great ‘Patriarch of Western Monasticism. This co-patron of Europe was “a fundamental reference point for European unity and a powerful reminder of the indispensable Christian roots of his culture and civilization.”

Regarding new saints in the Church, Pope, Benedict canonized 45 new saints, including Damien de Veuster of Molokai (2008) and Kateri Tekakwitha (2012).  He added two doctors to the Church in 2012, my patroness, St. Hildegard of Bingen and the Spanish priest St. John Ávila.

He also had the unique distinction of starting the cause of canonization of his predecessor, John Paul II, presiding at his beatification in 2011. (St. John Paul II was canonized in 2014 by Pope Francis.)

 Some in the Church predict that Benedict will one day be declared a Doctor of the Church. 

“I don’t believe being pope is a proof of sanctity, nor is it sufficient grounds for canonization. But being Joseph Ratzinger is,” said  the founder and editor of Ignatius Press, Father Joseph Fessio, S.J..  His doctorate was directed by Professor Joseph Ratzinger at the University of Regensburg. “I don’t know anyone who has worked closely with him who does not recognize his holiness and his brilliance. In addition to hoping for santo subito, I look forward to his being declared a Doctor of the Church.”     

The American write and analyst, George Weigel said that Benedict was “one of the most creative Catholic theologians of modern times and arguably the greatest papal preacher since Pope St. Gregory the Great. In the more than 30 years I knew him and was in conversation with him, I found him to be a consummate Christian gentleman, a man of deep faith and sweet temper. It has been my privilege to have been taught by and to work with many brilliant men and women; no one I’ve ever met had a more lucid or orderly mind than Joseph Ratzinger. He believed that the truth of the Gospel was the truth of the world, and he bent every effort to help others understand that truth.”

This Holy Father dedicated his last years in a “self-giving” as he spent them  penance and prayer, a gift to the Church, which perhaps will never be fully appreciated- for its hiddeness.

Painting:  Jose Luis Castrillo- Spain

MAN of the YEAR

 

The “Man of the Year” is in many people’s minds, Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. He has even been compared to Churchill. There is no doubt that he has led his country through the worst conflict Europe has seen since WWII.

The Ukrainians are fighting for freedom not only for themselves, but for us all, and may their unwavering courage be an example to us all, that what matters most in life is not material wealth but rather care of one another and of our homeland. 

May the light of Christ shine brightly on the Ukrainians and all who long for freedom. 

And on this feast of the Holy Family, we pray for the families who have been separated at this time due to war or conflict of any sort.

(Artist:  Stanislav Lunin- Ukraine)

FLIGHT

 

StanislawOstoja-Chrostowski- Poland, 1930 

Through every precinct of the wintry city
Squadroned iron resounds upon the streets;
Herod’s police
Make shudder the dark steps of the tenements
At the business about to be done.

Neither look back upon Thy starry country,
Nor hear what rumors crowd across the dark
Where blood runs down these holy walls,
Nor frame a childish blessing with Thy hand
Towards that fiery spiral of exulting souls!

Go, Child of God, upon the singing desert,
Where, with eyes of flame,
The roaming lion keeps thy road from harm.

–Thomas Merton, from Thirty Poems (1944)

CHRISTMAS PRAYER

                                                                   

                                                    A CHRISTMAS PRAYER

(George MacDonald)

Loving looks the large-eyed cow,
Loving stares the long-eared ass
At Heaven's glory in the grass!
Child, with added human birth
Come to bring the child of earth
Glad repentance, tearful mirth,
And a seat beside the hearth
At the Father's knee—
Make us peaceful as Thy cow;
Make us patient as Thine ass;
Make us quiet as Thou art now;
Make us strong as Thou wilt be.
Make us always know and see
We are His as well as Thou.

 

 Woonbo Kim Ki-chang, "The Birth of Jesus Christ", a Christian missionary during the Korean war (1952-53- Ink and color on silk).  This image is unique  as it portrays women at the birth of Christ. Dressed in traditional dress (Hanbok), the women carry food and supplies for the new mother.

CHRISTMAS

 

Taras Lozynskyy (Ukrainian- on glass)

“God’s voice resounds in stillness, attentiveness, and silence. It is “only in peace that we can enter profoundly into ourselves and recognize the authentic desires the Lord has placed in our hearts.”

Many times it is not easy to enter into that peace of heart because we are so busy with this, that and the other, the entire day. But, please, calm yourself down a little bit, enter into yourself, within yourself. Stop for two minutes. When we allow ourselves to be calm, God’s voice comes immediately. He is waiting for us to do this.“

                                                                                Pope Francis, December 2022

PEACE TO THE WORLD - THE EVE

 

                            “Three Angels” (1983) by Vitaliy Lytvyn (Ukrainian artist)

                                                            Toronto, Canada

“Peace means above all the absence of war, which for us means winning, getting the enemy to go away. Peace in our imagination means stopping these military actions. Stop killing us. That will be the first step towards authentic peace. 

But we know that peace is something deeper than the absence of war. It is not just about winning in war, but winning the very spirit of war, the war in its causes, the source of authentic and lasting peace.” 

                                                          Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk

Many Church leaders across the world are asking for  a temporary ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine on Christmas. 

“As people of faith and conscience, believing in the sanctity of all life on this planet, we call for a Christmas Truce in Ukraine. In the spirit of the truce that occurred in 1914 during the First World War, we urge our government to take a leadership role in bringing the war in Ukraine to an end through supporting calls for a ceasefire and negotiated settlement, before the conflict results in a nuclear war that could devastate the world’s ecosystems and annihilate all of God’s creation.”

LIFE'S ABUNDANCE- 2 DAYS BEFORE JESUS' BIRTH

 

The shaking, the awakening: with these, life merely begins to become capable of Advent. It is precisely in the severity of this awakening, in the helplessness of coming to consciousness, in the wretchedness of experiencing our limitations that the golden threads running between heaven and earth during this season reach us; the threads that give the world a hint of the abundance to which it is called, the abundance to which it is capable.    Father Alfred Delp, S.J.,  Advent of the Heart: Seasonal Sermons and Prison                                                                         Writings - 1941-1944 

The whole country seems to be in a lock-down again, but this time with bitter cold and for many there will be no Christmas with family and loved ones. Right now outside here it is 11 degrees, though sunny, and our new heat system seems to be taking a break with 56 degrees in the main part of the monastery. Then as we get system up and running there is a county-wide power outage, lasting hours, due to some crises on the mainland.  But we must remember those who have it so much harder- those with none of the necessities for survival.

Speaking near a large Nativity scene in Paul VI Hall on Dec. 21, the Pope Francis recalled an encounter that he had with Ukrainian war refugees in which the children seemed unable to smile.

“On this feast of God becoming a child, let us think of Ukrainian children. … These children bear the tragedy of that war, which is so inhuman, so harsh. Let us think of the Ukrainian people this Christmas, without electricity, without heating, without the main things necessary to survive, and let us pray to the Lord to bring them peace as soon as possible.”

Art: Ostap Lozynsky  (RIP)  Ukrainian

FIRST LIGHT - 3 DAYS BEFORE THE BIRTH

 

Winter in Ukraine- Rado Javor

“Advent is the time of promise; it is not yet the time of fulfillment. We are still in the midst of everything and in the logical inexorability and relentlessness of destiny.…Space is still filled with the noise of destruction and annihilation, the shouts of self-assurance and arrogance, the weeping of despair and helplessness. But round about the horizon the eternal realities stand silent in their age-old longing. There shines on them already the first mild light of the radiant fulfillment to come. From afar sound the first notes as of pipes and voices, not yet discernable as a song or melody. It is all far off still, and only just announced and foretold. But it is happening, today.”

― Alfred Delp, Advent of the Heart: Seasonal Sermons And Prison Writings 1941-1944

PEOPLE IN DANGER- 4 DAYS BEFORE THE BIRTH OF CHRIST

Dutch artist Gerda Smelik  (b. 1964) says about this mixed media piece:

Advent, a period of reflection and expectation, is portrayed by a globe with a fetus inside. The dark colors stand for the brokenness of life; the light around the fetus and the rays of gold around the globe already announce a better world. When you look at the painting up close, you discover that the suffering of the world is depicted by means of portraits of people in danger and distress.

I can find no better image than this vibrant art piece, which could be a poster for the massive sufferings of the Ukraine people this Advent.

 2006. Acrylic, oil paint, gold leaf, paper, wood chips, sand, glue, and photographs on canvas.

 

HOLY FAMILY

On December 17, 2022, Pope Francis recognized  the martyrdom of a Polish family killed by the German Nazi occupiers in 1944 for sheltering Jews in an effort to save them from the Holocaust. The decision puts the family on the path to possible sainthood.   (See Blog  Jan.2020). They will be beatified in 2023.

Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma and their seven children  (ages 8 to unborn)  were murdered by the Nazis on March 24, 1944, in Markowa, Poland, for having sheltered Jews during the Second World War.

The Catholic Church officially recognizes their death as “in hatred of the faith.”

On March 24, 1944, the German police entered their home, killed the eight Jews who had taken refuge there, and then shot the couple. The German soldiers then turned their attention to the children, whom they also shot: eight-year-old Stanislas, six-year-old Barbara, five-year-old Władysław, four-year-old Franciszek, three-year-old Antoni, and one-year-old Maria.  The couple was expecting a seventh child, also recognized as a martyr by the Church today.

 In the region, this family was nicknamed “The Samaritans of Markowa.” Jozef and Wiktoria  were recognized in 1995 as “Righteous Among the Nations.”   According to the Yad Vashem memorial, this massacre of the Ulma family “became a symbol of Polish sacrifice and martyrdom during the German occupation.

In 2018, Pope Francis hailed the Ulmas as “an example of faithfulness to God and his commandments, of love for neighbor and of respect for human dignity.”.

THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER - 5 DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS

 

“Someone who goes through this wilderness among mankind again and again as the Seeker, and as the Caller, You can sense that that this is more than the call of man, or a power, or a greatness, or a thirst for dominance, or a violent force. This is the Calling God, who calls out in the midst of the wilderness through voices of men. He has filled them, and their very documents that such perfected people are among us sent by God.”

― Alfred Delp, Advent of the Heart: Seasonal Sermons And Prison Writings 1941-1944

Work by My Dog Sighs (Street artist) Cardiff, Wales, Feb. 2022  featuring the Ukrainian flag, imagery from Kyiv and an emotive tear.

CHRISTMAS IN THE UKRAINE

 

Since the Ukrainian invasion, I have had on my desk a photo of the Benedictine nuns, who once lived in Zhytomyr, but evacuated to Liv, with a smaller and newer Benedictine community. The photo was taken in 2021 at Christmas, and twelve very happy nuns are surrounded by Christmas decorations in their church. 

“...we pretend to be grown up and responsible; we are so proud and self-assured--and look at the result. The world lies in bomb dust and ruins about us.”
 Alfred Delp, S.J.: Prison Writings

Little did these nuns know they would be forced to leave their cloister, and take on the active work of helping refugees fleeing the war that is ravaging their country.  In the monastery, the voices and cries of children fill the halls and cloister yard. More than 100 refugees have been living there permanently. Almost 1,000 refugees have passed through the monastery since the beginning of the war.

Not only do the nuns have to deal with feeding and physically caring for the people,  but they have to daily deal with trauma. Many of the children suffer  because of the horrors of what they have seen as well as experiencing the suffering of the adults in their young lives.

The nuns are not complaining about a disruption in their once serene lives, as they believe that this is what God is asking of them and other religious at this time. Despite all this new work, prayer continues to be the mainstay which holds them all together and brings strength. 

As we continue through this Advent, may we all be aware of the many gifts we receive daily and take for granted, and keep all who struggle for freedom in our prayers. In the days before the feast of the birth of our Savior, we will present short meditations by Father Delp, who is an inspiration to all in this season.

 

Painting: Christmas- Ihor Ropianyk (Ukraine)

EXPECTATION

Today is the  feast of "OUR LADY of EXPECTATION", which  is also known as  “OUR LADY of the O” because the Church a has just begun to sing the "O” Antiphons at Vespers. They remind us of the universal longing for the coming of the Savior.

 The Feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, focuses on the expectation of our Lady, not just of the birth of her Son, but of the salvation of the world.  Redemption is near. “All creation is groaning in labor pains,’ through the eyes of her who, above all creatures, longed to see the face of Christ, and whose expectation truly was palpable in every fiber of her.

Although this feast day is no longer celebrated in the Universal Church, it is still celebrated locally in countries such as Spain.

 Pope Benedict XVI spoke of Mary with this title in a prayer: 

 O Mary, Virgin of expectation and Mother of hope, revive the spirit of Advent in your entire Church.

 The votive Mass of “Our Lady of Expectation” is theologically enlightening and spiritually enriching for the time of Advent and Christmas.   With the entrance antiphon, the Church prays with the prophet for the coming of the Just One from heaven that the earth may be ready to welcome the Savior: “Send victory like a dew, you heavens, and let the clouds rain down the just.   Let the earth open for salvation to spring up” (Is 45:8).

In the opening prayer, the Church offers the prayer to God through Mary’s intercession: “O God who wished that your Word would take the flesh from the womb of the Virgin as announced by the Angel and whom we confess to be the true Mother of God, may we be helped by her intercession.”

THE GREAT "Os"

A reminder that December 17, we start the “O” ANTIPHONS at Vespers, prayers that are recited or chanted in an ancient tradition leading up to Christmas.

                                       Sister Ansgar Holmberg, CSJ

Composed in the sixth or seventh century, the seven O Antiphons are taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah and the first letters of each antiphon form the Latin word SARCORE, which read backwards is ERO CRAS, which means ‘Tomorrow I come,’

Each night, the O Antiphons progress with ever-increasing anticipation of the coming of Emmanuel (God is With Us.) In this prayer, we express our deep longing for the coming of the Messiah.

These Antiphons have a three-fold structure. Each begins with “O” a term of wonder and amazement that gets our attention that something new is going to happen. Then, each Antiphon includes a Messianic name to describe Jesus, such as Wisdom or Key of David. And finally, each Antiphon concludes with a call for Jesus as God to come rapidly to save us. In our modern times, so filled with a lack of hope, they give voice to our poignant longings to be saved.

Dec. 17 — “O Sapientia”/“O Wisdom” (Isaiah 11:2-3; 28:29) 

Dec. 18 — “O Adonai”/“O Lord” (Is. 11:4-5; 33:22)

Dec. 19 — “O Radix Jesse”/“O Root of Jesse” (Is. 11:1; 11:10) 

Dec. 20 — “O Clavis David”/“O Key of David” (Is. 9:6; 22:22) 

Dec. 21 — “O Oriens”/“O Dawn of the East” (Is. 9:2) 

Dec. 22 — “O Rex Gentiu”/“O King of the Gentiles” (Is. 2:4; 9:7) 

Dec. 23 — “O Emmanuel”/“God with Us” (Is. 7:14)

MORE STAMPS- AROUND THE WORLD

In searching for more postal stamps for Christmas, I am amazed at the variety of design and also the countries producing religious themes, such as Sri Lanka and Micronesia.

 The choice of designs is highly variable, ranging from an overtly religious image of the Nativity, to secular images of Christmas trees, wreaths, Santa Claus, and so forth. A country may maintain a unified theme for several years, then change it drastically, in some cases seemingly to follow "fashion moves" by other countries. For instance, during the 1970s many countries issued Christmas stamps featuring children's drawings, with the young artist identified by name and age.

 

The choice of secular or religious designs is frequently a bone of contention in some countries; church leaders often see secular designs as diluting the meaning of the holiday, while postal officials fear that overly religious designs could lead their secular or minority-religious customers to avoid the stamps, leaving millions unsold, and even expose the postal administration to charges that they are violating laws prohibiting the promotion of a particular religion.

 In the United States, annual discord over "secular" versus "religious" designs was eventually resolved by the Postal Service issuing some of each per year; typically a group of 4–6 related secular designs, plus a religious design (usually depicting the Madonna and Child). 

To avoid difficulties attendant upon contracting for original designs with a religious theme, the latter have typically been adapted from Old Master paintings hanging in U.S. galleries, thus qualifying as depictions of art. In the United Kingdom, the Royal Mail resolves the difficulty by issuing "religious" and "secular" themed designs in alternate years.

 Given the state of our materialistic society, we should be glad to have a religious themed Christmas stamp in our own country. It should give us hope that all is not lost in today’s increasingly mixed-up world. 

OUR LADY OF SEATTLE ON SHAW ISLAND

 

For years I have admired the artwork of DANIEL MATSUI, and recently a friend in Seattle gave us a beautiful giclee print of this drawing  by this artist, which was commissioned for  her parish church, St. Luke in Shoreline.

On his website Daniel,writes:  I combined iconographic elements from the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady, Undoer of Knots with decorative elements from the art of the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest.

Its shape suggests a copper shield. In the border, pairs of animals approach Noah’s Ark. This is a reference to Chief Seattle, who took the baptismal name Noah. The Ark I based on a Tlingit bone carving of a spirit canoe.

The figure of Mary is dressed similar to a statue in the church, but carrying the Christ Child in a sling. She stands on a crescent moon, a snake underfoot, with twelve stars about her head. The Greek nomina sacra inscriptions are abbreviations for Jesus Christ and Mother of God.”

The piece is beautifully framed and will have a pride of place in our chapel.  One has to see it in person to appreciate the colors and details.  Daniel is noted for his fine work which is reminiscent of medieval art.  He says he draws inspiration from Gothic illuminated manuscripts, painting and tapestries.  While his work is collected around the world, I wish it was more widely known on our country.  Heaven knows we need more truly good art in our Churches today.

Daniel earned an undergraduate degree at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, where he studied various art mediums, concentrating mostly on ink drawing and printmaking. He also worked in modern styles and considered pursuing a career in comics or film animation- thank God he changed his mind!.

In 2004, he was received into the Church at the Easter Vigil. This motivated him to revisit his interest in religious art. His mother had been raised  Catholic, but he was never baptized.

“Even though I didn’t have any real religious formation or catechism that endured, there was some exposure to the Mass—not regular but some exposure and I had the idea that the Catholic faith was the one true faith.  That experience of the liturgy also formed a connection in my mind between medieval art and the Catholic faith. Those were strongly associations which maybe wouldn’t have been if I had more of a typical parochial upbringing in the 1980s and 1990s.” 

Once can certainly see an Asian influence in his art. His paternal ancestors came to the United States about a century ago from Japan, though he says “his interest in Japanese art did not come through my family, but through my patrons.”

 Daniel has a very Benedictine approach to selling his art. “I like to sell directly to people and price my art in such a way that I can attract patronage from ordinary people. I like to see my work in homes and I don’t want to play the games where I get gallery representation, set my prices at an unbelievably high level, and expect to sell one or two pieces a year—if I’m lucky.”  Almost all his art is I privately commissioned.

 Speaking about Our Lady of Seattle,Father Brad Hagelin, pastor of St. Luke's says,“It’s a very creative piece. It’s obvious that it comes from a place of devotion. This is the artist’s calling. It was like commissioning an icon from a monk who has a great devotion.”

(Image used with kind permission of artist)

NEW BIRDS IN A VANISHING WORLD

 

One of the best things about the month of December, is the annual Christmas Bird Count ( for us it will be on the 17th this year).  About four years ago I was in Arizona for meetings, and my friend Judy took me hiking/birdwatching somewhere in mountains. On the trail we met a very friendly man, who was looking for birds and gave us some clues where to find a few I was searching for.

 Later, I found he was a well-known naturalist, who weekly leads walks on all facets of life, from plants to insects (he loves moths) to birds.

In his last newsletter there was a reference to a book (which I have ordered for Christmas) which deals with new species. We think all life, as we know it, is rapidly disappearing, especially birds, but nearly 300 species of birds have been described since 1960, a year when many ornithologists thought that world’s avifauna had been nearly fully catalogued. (10,824 species thus far listed)

This book shows a different story! Amazing as it might sound, ornithologists are still discovering, on average, five or six bird species that are completely new to science each year. What's more, these aren't all just obscure brown birds on tiny islands.  The new species include warblers,  woodcreepers, antbirds, tyrants, owls, parrots and parakeets, and even a puffbird.

Most of the newly-found species come from South America and about half of the total of new species are Sub-Saharan,  Africa  being the third most productive region for new birds.

From 2000-2009, scientists described on average seven new bird species worldwide every year. Scientists working in the southern Amazon have recorded an incredible 15 new species of birds according to the Portuguese publication Capa Aves. In fact, this is the largest group of new birds uncovered in the Brazilian in the Amazon in 140 years.

 Finding new species fast is important in the midst of a worldwide mass extinction, which seems to be hitting birds particularly hard. An example  are the potentially undiscovered species which die off in Australia’s huge fires.  And while countless others are quietly snuffed out elsewhere in the world, scientists need to redirect their efforts towards discovering new species, before they are gone forever.

 According to the blurb for the book,each species account discusses the story of the discovery, with photographs of the birds where available, along with a discussion of what is known about the species' biology, habitat, and distribution, with a strong conservation message. Most of the species in the book are either vulnerable or endangered.

Always interested in birds from Peru I found several new species: A new species of bird from the heart of Peru remained undetected for years until researchers identified it by its unique song.

 A species of  manakin, Machaeropterus eckelberryi, was discovered during a 1996 expedition to Peru. The bird was different from the local subspecies of striped manakin, but nearly identical to the subspecies (Machaeropterus regulus aureopectus) found in the distant Venezuelan tepuis. But  what divided it from other species was its distinctive voice.

This manakin’s song lacks undertones and has a one-noted rising vocalization, rather than two-noted falling vocalization with undertones or a falling monosyllabic vocalization with undertones.

 It was given the name Machaeropterus eckelberryi, commemorating the 20th century bird illustrator Don Eckelberry.  (Photo:  Kevin Berkoff)

Another lovely Peruvian bird is the Inti tananger. The species is named after the Incan sun god Inti, as a reference to its bright yellow plumage and its tendency to sing late into the morning when the sun is higher in the sky.  It breeds in and around the Machariapo Valley in western Bolivia from roughly November to March, then disperses northward along the east slope of Andes into southern Peru. It inhabits forest that has a large amount of bamboo in the understory. Its song, given from an elevated perch, is a jaunty up-and-down series that could be roughly transcribed as “pretty bird, pretty bird…” or “so pretty, so pretty…” It only sings on its breeding grounds, and is otherwise very shy, secretive and hard to see.

Another lovely species is the Cordillera Azul antbird (Myrmoderus eowilsoni). It has been found only in the Cordillera Azul, San Martín Region, of Peru where its natural habitat is humid montane forest. It was described only in 2018 by Andre Moncrieff and colleagues and given the name Myrmoderus eowilsoni. to honor the American naturalist Edward Osborne Wilson (who spent his life studying ants- not birds).

The antbirds are found across subtropical and tropical Central and South America, from Mexico to Argentina. This genus consists of more than 200 species, known variously as antshrikes, antwrens, antvireos, and bushbirds. Most species live in forests, although a few are found in other habitats. I remember them from my time in Peru. 

I look forward to finding more species to study (in a book of course).

CHRISTMAS STAMPS- AROUND THE WORLD

                                                   

Christmas stamps, as we know them are not that old. It is a matter of debate as to which was the first Christmas stamp. The Canadian map stamp of 1898 bears an inscription "XMAS 1898", but it was actually issued to mark the inauguration of the Imperial Penny Postage rate.    

The Christmas connection has long been reported to have been the result of quick thinking; William Mulock was proposing that it be issued on 9 November, to "honor the Prince" (meaning the Prince of Wales), but when Queen Victoria asked "what Prince?" in a displeased manner, Mulock realized the danger, and answered "Why, madam, the Prince of Peace."

 In 1935, British Forces troops stationed in Egypt were issued with a Christmas stamp for their mail home.

In 1937, Austria issued two "Christmas greeting stamps" featuring a rose and zodiac signs. In 1939, Brazil issued four semi-postal stamps with designs featuring the three kings and a star, an angel and child, the Southern Cross and a child, and a mother and child.

In 1941 Hungary also issued a semi-postal whose additional fees were to pay for "soldiers' Christmas". The first stamps to depict the Nativity were the Hungary issue of 1943. These were all one-time issues, more like commemorative stamps than regular issues.

 The next Christmas stamps did not appear until 1951, when Cuba issued designs with poinsettias and bells, followed by Haiti (1954), Luxembourg and Spain (1955), then Australia, South Korea, and Liechtenstein (1957). In cases such as Australia, the issuance marked the first of what became an annual tradition.   

 Many more nations took up the practice during the 1960s, including the United States (1962) and United Kingdom (1966).   By the 1990s, approximately 160 postal administrations were issuing Christmas stamps, mostly on an annual basis.

Ukraine 2021 stamp combined both religious and historical motifs, as we can see Jesus and his mother Mary, as well as the Cossacks and Volodymyr the Great, a ruler of Kievan Rus' and a person who Christianized it. The stamp was designed by the artist Mykola Kochubei.

AUSTRALIAN CHRISTMAS

When looking for Christmas foreign stamps, I came across this artist, who happened to die on Christmas day 2019  at the age of 99.  

LEOPOLDINE POLDI MIMOVICH was born in 1920 and grew up in the village of Sankt Johann in the Pongau region of Austria (now a part of Italy). Her father was an artist and she learned much from working with him.  Her first husband, who she met at age 16, died in the war. 

She studied sculpting in Vienna and then later at the School of Wood Sculpture in Hallstatt from 1943 to 1949. She married Ljubisa (Leo) Mimovich, a Serbian, who had been held in a prisoner of war camp near Leopoldine's village. When the couple were married Leopoldine lost her Austrian citizenship and so had to emigrate. 

She and Lou initially applied to migrate to America, where her aunt was living. Their application took so long to process, they applied to migrate to Australia. They had one daughter, Gabrielle.

Arriving in Melbourne, after much difficulty, Leopoldine went to work in a shirt factory and Lou at Hoffman's brickworks. Leopoldine then moved to Myer department store where she worked in the furniture carving department for a number of years.  During this time she also began doing commissioned carvings. Throughout this time she found the industry to discriminate against women, whose work was less respected and financially undervalued.

Leopoldine and Leo finally purchased a house in the Melbourne eastern suburbs where she set up her studio and undertook commissions which reflected her Austrian traditions and Catholic background.

Over time her work evolved into a more impressionistic, free- flowing form, adopting local materials such as Huon pine.  When she could no longer sculpt in her late 80s she took up painting icons which she was able to do into her mid 90s.  Her works are represented in numerous churches and public buildings around the country.

Her crucifixes grace the walls of the Mawson Inter-Denominational chapel in the Antarctic and the United Nations building in New York. Other works are in England, the United States, Germany, Japan, Korea, Honolulu and New Guinea.

In these joyous paintings, the traditional Christmas story of the birth of Christ is presented in an Australian setting, complete with a rich array of native flora and fauna. 

The 65c stamp shows a calmly Madonna and Child amid the colorful Australian bush and an array of native flora, including Banksia wattle, eucalypt and waratah. 

Various animals, such as a magpie. kookaburra, owl, koala, possum, wallaby, sulphur-crested cockatoo, and parrots are perched in the foliage, paying homage to the Christ Child. 

The international stamp, $2.60, shows the more domestic scene of Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus. Their setting suggests the manger but, instead of the traditional cattle and sheep, they are surrounded  by native animals and their young in the bush.

It was fun for me to see the birds and animals I had seen in the wild some 15 years ago.