St. Joseph was his first icon

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

SPENCER – More than 30 years and 100-plus icons later, Brother Terence McGrath, OSCO, has much to share about the time-consuming but rewarding process of making these sacred images.
The 84-year-old is a Trappist monk at St. Joseph Abbey and its principal iconographer - a person who writes icons. The word “write” is technically used for making this type of painting because, like Scripture, the written word of God, “an icon should also communicate a truth,” Brother Terence explains. So, the symbolism in an icon is important.
His first icon depicts St. Joseph holding two doves for the presentation of Jesus in the temple, since the poor couldn’t afford a lamb. (See Lk 2:22-24.) Brother Terence used acrylics to paint this icon.
“I had worked in acrylic before turning my attention to icons,” the monk says. “That’s when I was in Holy Cross.” He means that he was a member of the Congregation of the Holy Cross before joining the Trappists.
He says he entered the Holy Cross Brothers in 1958, and didn’t want to leave their novitiate, a time of formation for those preparing to fully embrace religious life.
“Novitiate in those years was very monastic, and that was my attraction,” he explains. So he struggled to move on to the scholasticate - his college training for teaching. He received a sudden grace to do that, he says, without elaborating.
He went on to teach high school in Connecticut and New York. During breaks, he and some other brothers and priests made retreats at St. Joseph Abbey.
In 1983, Brother Terence says, he entered the Trappists. He returned to the Holy Cross Brothers in 1985 and, later that year, went back to the Trappists. He’s been a Trappist ever since.
“The Lord was calling me here,” he explains. “I would be happy nowhere else.”
After entering the Trappists, he started making icons.
“The monastery itself has a formative influence on you,” Brother Terence says. “Their interest in icons got me interested. … I was naturally drawn to the icons because they were so beautiful.” He’d seen one of St. Joseph that he liked and wanted to try to make one like it. The result now hangs in the monastery’s church. 
Brother Terence says he knows of 103 icons he’s done. That’s not counting ones he made before he started keeping track.
Some are displayed permanently in the abbey. Besides St. Joseph, there’s his original of the order’s founders.
There’s also one of Our Lady of Vladimir and a crucifix. Brother Terence says the crucifix was visible in a photo of the refectory (the monks’ dining room) that was displayed at the Big E when the monks sold beer from their brewery there.
Most of his icons are sold to help to raise money for his community.
“People usually commission them,” he says. But some folks buy ones they see in the abbey’s gift shop or Holy Rood Guild showroom, where vestments are sold.
Other icons are still in his studio. He points out a crucifix modeled on one by the 13th century Italian artist Cimabue. Brother Terence made this crucifix as a study, in preparation for doing a bigger version. Before he finished the large one, two visiting priests requested it for a church they were building, he says. Upon learning months later that they’d changed their minds, he put it in the showroom, and within a week the pastor of his home parish, St. Luke in Whitestone, New York, bought it.
To learn how an icon is made, let’s take a lesson from this former teacher.
Before beginning an icon “I recollect myself and I say a short prayer,” Brother Terence says.
To start the process, you cover the front of the wood with linen or muslin. Over the cloth you spread gesso: marble dust and chalk dust mixed with glue. Apply 10 to 12 coats, letting each dry, then sanding it. Brother Terence explains that the marble is solid, the chalk absorbent, so the pigment can be absorbed into the gesso that becomes part of the board.
You draw the image with a pencil and apply gold leaf.
“The halo is traditionally used with a gold ring … to symbolize this person is a saint in heaven,” Brother Terence explains. By contrast, paint, which is used for other parts of the image, is rooted in the earth, where pigments come from.
Acrylics are too new to be time tested, he says. Some artists use oil paint. But now he uses egg tempera, the oldest and best method for painting icons, he says. Egg tempera is made by mixing egg yolk with white wine and adding dry pigment. Some folks use red wine or vinegar, but others say vinegar may darken images over time, he says.
“Depending on the strength of the pigment you want,” you can add water, to produce different shades, Brother Terence says.
After applying several layers of egg tempera and letting the icon dry, he beats egg whites and lets them sit overnight. Then he discards the meringue, adds water to the liquid that’s left, and brushes it over the painted part, but not the gold leaf. This protects the icon so it will last for centuries, like the egg white protects a growing baby chick, he says.
How long does it take to make an icon?
Brother Terence says he doesn’t keep track of time; “in the contemplative life there are interruptions.”
He describes the overall process this way: “It’s very relaxing. It’s very prayerful. It is a very quiet space.” Throwing in one last touch of humor he adds, “You may spontaneously pray” – asking God for help with the work!

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