Robert Lentz (born 1946) is an American

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders in the Catholic Church. There are also friars outside of the Catholic Church, such as within the Anglican Communion. The term, first used in the 12th or 13th century, distinguishes the mendi ...

and religious

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...

painter.Brother Robert Lentz, ofm at Trinity Stores
retrieved 1 November 2007.Julian of Norwich, Icon by Robert Lentz
retrieved November 1, 2007. He is particularly known for incorporating contemporary social themes into his icon work. He belongs to the

Order of Friars Minor The Order of Friars Minor (commonly called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; Post-nominal letters, postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a Mendicant orders, mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis ...

, and is currently stationed in Holy Name Province.

Life

Lentz was born in rural

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

to a family of

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

descent and of a

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

background.An Exhibition of Contemporary Religious Art by Robert Lentz
Marian Library, retrieved November 1, 2007. Lentz originally intended to enter the

Order as a young man in the 1960s, joining the formation program for St. John the Baptist

Province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

, but left before taking his vows. Afterward, he was inspired by his family's

Eastern Christian Eastern Christianity comprises Christianity, Christian traditions and Christian denomination, church families that originally developed during Classical antiquity, classical and late antiquity in the Eastern Mediterranean region or locations fu ...

heritage and became interested in

painting. He took up formal study in 1977 as an apprentice painter to a master of Greek icon painting from the school of Photios Kontoglou at Holy Transfiguration Monastery in

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline () is an affluent town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. An exclave of Norfolk County, Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton ...

. During his time in the Secular Franciscan community in

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, Lentz developed a close relationship to the local friars, and again felt the call to join the order. He was received into the Order of Friars Minor in New Mexico in 2003, and transferred to the Holy Name Province on the East Coast in 2008. After relocating he taught at

St. Bonaventure University St. Bonaventure University is a private university, private Franciscan university in St. Bonaventure, New York. It has 2,760 undergraduate and graduate students. The Order of Friars Minor, Franciscans established the university in 1858. In ath ...

. He is currently stationed at Holy Name College in

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, it is an edge city with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ...

. Lentz is gay. In New Mexico, Lentz taught

William Hart McNichols William Hart McNichols (born July 10, 1949) is an American Catholic Church, Catholic priest and artist from the United States. He was formerly a member of the Jesuits, Society of Jesus. Early life McNichols was born to Marjory Hart and Stephen ...

, another gay Christian iconographer.Mubarak Dahir (July 23, 2002
"The dangerous lives of gay priests: fearing a witch-hunt in the wake of the sex abuse scandal, gay Roman Catholic priests talk of their dedication to their work and their God—and of the secret loves that put their careers at risk"
page 6. Retrieved December 1, 2010.

Work

Lentz's icons include fourteen large images of recently canonized saints, people of various cultures and ethnicities, and modern secular political and cultural figures.
By

Kittredge Cherry Kittredge Cherry (born 1957 in Iowa) is an American author and a priest of Metropolitan Community Church. Biography Cherry studied journalism and art history at the University of Iowa. After graduation, she worked as a newspaper journalist and st ...

, reviewed by

Toby Johnson Toby Johnson (born 1945 in San Antonio, Texas) is an American novelist and writer in the field of gay spirituality. Life After leaving seminary in 1970, Johnson moved to San Francisco and lived in the Bay Area throughout the 1970s. While a stu ...

, retrieved November 1, 2007. His 1989 icon, '' Apache Christ'', depicts Jesus as a

Mescalero Mescalero or Mescalero Apache () is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-central New Mexico. In ...

holy man and is displayed in the St. Joseph Apache Mission Church.

calls Lentz's icon of

Harvey Milk Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk was born and raised i ...

"a national gay treasure". His 1994 icon of

Sergius and Bacchus Sergius (or Serge) and Bacchus (Greek: Σέργιος & Βάκχος; ; , also called ) were fourth-century Syrian Christian soldiers revered as martyrs and military saints by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches. Their ...

was first displayed at

Chicago's Gay Pride Parade The Chicago Pride Parade, also colloquially (and formerly) called the Chicago Gay Pride Parade or PRIDE Chicago, is an annual pride parade held on the last Sunday of June in Chicago, Illinois in the United States. It is considered a culminat ...

, and has become a popular symbol in the

gay Christian Christianity developed during the 1st century AD as a Jewish Christian sect and, as such, many of its views were rooted in Jewish teaching. As Christianity established itself as a separate religion, with its own scriptures, some views moved away ...

community. Addison H. Hart of '' Touchstone'' criticized Lentz's works for breaking with the traditional purpose of Christian icons, writing that they "do not serve as vehicles of the tradition, but as propaganda and individual expression".review: ''God’s Word in Color: The Mystical Language of Icons'' by Solrunn Nes
reviewed by Addison H. Hart, '' Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity'', retrieved November 1, 2007.

Notes

Bibliography

*''A Passion for Life: Fragments of the Face of God'', by Joan D. Chittister and Robert Lentz, 1996,

Orbis Books Orbis Books is an American imprint of the Maryknoll order. It has been a small but influential publisher of liberation theology works. It was founded by Nicaraguan Maryknoll priest Miguel D'Escoto with Philip J. Scharper in 1970. Its editor- ...

, 132 pages, *''Christ in the Margins'', by Robert Lentz and Edwina Gately, 2003, Orbis Books, 144 pages, {{DEFAULTSORT:Lentz, Robert 1946 births Painters from Colorado American people of Russian descent Living people 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists Secular Franciscans American gay artists LGBTQ Roman Catholics American Friars Minor Roman Catholic religious brothers St. Bonaventure University faculty LGBTQ people from Colorado Converts to Roman Catholicism from Eastern Orthodoxy