Cathedral Arts

An Artist’s View of St. Peter: Wise, Human, Struggling Like Us

The Feast of our patron saint, Peter, is June 29. We can perhaps identify with the disciple Peter depicted in the stained-glass window from 1914 above our main altar. Trying to walk on water, Peter is struggling in a very human way to reach Jesus. We have an entire story before us.

Peter appears in a quite different way in an impressive painting on the south wall of St. Mary’s Chapel. In this rendering we see Peter as saint, robed in red and blue and holding one gold key. The artist has departed from many traditional depictions in which Peter is arrayed in yellow and blue and holds two keys. Here the rich colors and brilliant gold background in an elaborate gold frame tell us that this is an important, idealized symbol. But the face is not that of an idealized saint. The expression on the face of this mature, human man evokes wisdom, kindliness, and perhaps the struggles of life.

The artist is Adelia Samaha, a longtime St. Petersburg resident, who has had a close association with St. Peter’s. She has painted many portraits in her long career and is also well known for charming decorative painting on a variety of surfaces. Our former St. Theresa’s Guild commissioned Adelia to create this painting, which she completed in 1974.

In a year when we are celebrating many other significant anniversaries, it is appropriate to acknowledge this one. This year also marks our 55th anniversary as the Cathedral for the Diocese of Southwest Florida (1969); our 135th year as a worshiping community (1889); and the 125th anniversary of the completion of our original worship space (1899).

The model for St. Peter is Adelia’s paternal uncle, Joseph Malouf (1893-1968), who became Archbishop of the Melkite Church in the Diocese of Baalbek, Lebanon. (The Melkite Church, composed mainly of Christians from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine, joined the Roman Catholic Church in 1724.)

Take a few moments to look at the window and the painting. How do they affect you? What do they tell you about this ordinary person who became a saint? Think of the ways in which visual arts inform us that other arts do not. Give thanks for the vision and skills of the artists who enhance our spiritual life so beautifully, and for eyes to behold their work.