Coincidence?

 We have a new pope now, Leo XIV.  First American to hold the job, a native of Chicago.  It was well covered in the news, and I did watch that.  They had a lot of time to fill, and we learned that he was an Augustinian, and a graduate of Villanova University, a math major they said.  Do I have some connection to all this?  Maybe.

Back in 1997 I was part of an exhibition organized by the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, in the Philadelphia area.  That exhibition was called Art and Religion: The Many Faces of Faith.  I submitted a bunch of my saint prints, relatively recent to that time, and they ended up accepting four, which ended up being the most works by any one artist.  In the end, it was decided to split the show, so two of my works ended up at the Balch, and two went to the other half of the show, which was held at Villanova University.  I did get to see the Balch show, but not the other.  However I did receive copies of the catalog, which I think had images of all four works.  One of the organizers came to visit me and check out more saints, and I think bought a few.  And later she wrote and sent me a poem, a series about artists and the works they created for the show.

Now, I have some familiarity with St Augustine, who I guess was either the founder or inspiration for the order named for him, of which our new pope is a member.  He was a doctor of the church, responsible for a lot of church policies, and I did a print about him as part of my Everyman series.  Unfortunately that print is one I don't have right now, the only existing copy in storage, the catalog from the show also in storage, and the block destroyed by Hurricane Sandy.  So no photo of the image here.  If I remember it correctly, the image for the print was a church building in the background, and in the foreground, in one point perspective, a street full of restaurants and bars, as Augustine had been somewhat of a hedonist in his younger days.  I think I remember a quote from one of his writings I found in his Butler's bio- "Lord grant me chastity, but not yet a while."  Meaning, prayer to become a better person, but he was still enjoying his bad behavior.  

Some recent research shows that Villanova was founded as an Augustinian college, the only such one apparently.  Knowing that, it may not be a surprise that a graduate of the school, as our new pope is, decided to join an order made up of the founders of that school.  Perhaps he was influenced by people he knew at the school.  If I ever run into him, I'll ask.  The next question I have is did the people at Villanova have anything to do with the fact that one of my prints that was chosen for the show and was shown at Villanova University was my St Augustine print?  I don't think so, since the show was organized by the Balch Institute, and had no mention of Villanova anywhere on the prospectus.  On the other hand, maybe it was a selling point for Villanova taking the show.  I don't know if anyone is still around who knew what happened, and while the Balch still exists, it merged with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania long ago, and they took over all their material.  Doesn't seem like the kind of thing that would be kept.  Then the big question would be did the pope ever see my work?  He's an alumnus of the school, so he may have been there at times, but I also know he had spent a lot of time in Peru doing mission work, to the extent that he has a citizenship there.  If so, it doesn't seem that it influenced him, as it appears he joined that order well before that exhibition.   In the end, it all seems to be just a coincidence.