Candlemas Lecture

The annual Candlemas Lecture, organised by the Centre for Marian Studies at St Mary's University in honour of our late colleague Dr Cathy Oakes, will take place via Zoom on 3rd February 2025 at 7pm GMT (1pm CT; 2pm ET; 8pm in France).

Guest speaker

This year our guest speaker is The Reverend Dr Ayla Lepine, who is the Associate Rector at St James’s Piccadilly in London.

As an art historian and theologian, she has published widely on modern art and the sacred, and was co-curator of the National Gallery’s 2022 exhibition 'Fruits of the Spirit: Art from the Heart', which paired paintings from the National Gallery and across the UK with Galatians 5.22.

Theme

Dr Lepine's lecture will explore two works of art featured in her forthcoming book 'Women, Art, God'.

In Julia Margaret Cameron’s series 'The Annunciation (A Study)', she reimagined and reconfigured paintings by Renaissance artists including Perugino and Lippi. In her photography, blurred and hazy aspects of the image are suggestive of the Holy Spirit in this new technology.

A century later, the American nun Sister Corita Kent produced a groundbreaking silkscreen print 'The Juiciest Tomato of All'. This artwork compared the Virgin Mary to a ripe fruit, with a title inspired by Del Monte tinned fruit and vegetable slogans from her local supermarket.

By considering these two artworks by women from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as a pair, new ways of encountering Mary in art history, theology, and prayer can emerge with unexpected resonance for the 21st century.

Booking

If you would like to receive the free Zoom link, please send a message to Catherine O'Brien at info@marianstudies.ac.uk