Icons

Robert Lentz is a Franciscan friar whose innovative icons are known worldwide. He is a Holy Name Province member stationed in Silver Spring, Maryland, at Holy Name College. Besides painting many hours daily, he teaches apprentices, writes, and conducts workshops on art and spirituality throughout the United States. Brother Robert is active in promoting dialog between Muslims and Christians. He is also committed to indigenizing Byzantine iconography in the various cultures embraced by the Church.

Brother Robert was born in rural Colorado in 1946. His grandparents emigrated from tsarist Russia in the early 1900s. He studied Byzantine iconography by apprenticing himself to a master painter from the school of Photios Kontoglou in a Greek Orthodox monastery founded on Mount Athos. He belongs to the Byzantine Rite but has focused his life and work on the radical changes facing all Christians today.

His icons reflect his experiences among the poor in this country and the Third World and his Franciscan and Russian roots. They are filled with bright colors and often depict contemporary subjects. While always striving to remain faithful to the essence of Byzantine iconography, he adapted traditional conventions to minister better to the emerging Church. His icons remain transcendent expressions of the ancient Christian Tradition, inviting us into communion with God and the saints.