Narnia, Nuns & Sacred Art: Help Hilary Move

I’m moving. Again.

On Monday this week, a nice older chap came over to see how much stuff I have, to make an estimate on how much it was going to cost me to move. Next week he’s bringing over a load of boxes so I can start packing. It’s been 4.5 years since I came to live in the little flat in the big farmhouse in The Middle of Nowhere, Umbria.

 

When the 2016 Norcia earthquake took my home away, it took everything else with it; the monastery, the sacramental life, even my sense of who I was. It’s taken this long - including all the way through the Covid hysteria - to understand what I was supposed to do next. And for a place to do it to become clear.

 

Loss of Norcia; loss of myself

The sudden wrenching away of the things I’d searched for all those years, the solution I thought I’d finally found in being an Oblate of the Monastery of St. Benedict in Norcia, took away more than I realised. For nearly five years, I’ve been cocooned up in my little cave, like a survivor of a crashed space ship. I wrestled the ship down to the ground with all hands still alive, but looked out from the crash site at a strange landscape I felt had no place for me. I felt as though I had lost myself, left myself behind in Norcia.

 

A seed planted blossoms in the ruins

Having studied seriously classical academic drawing and painting at a private atelier throughout my time in Rome, I had never settled on how I could turn that training to productive use. But after I moved, the Prior of the monastery suggested that people who come to Norcia love monastic life and medieval things and would love sacred art in the old Gothic Umbrian style.

 

St. Anne and the Infant Virgin -- my first commissioned work.

 

It was the germ of an idea, but it took a catastrophe to get me started in earnest. I believe very firmly that it was a work of Divine Providence that I happened across an advert for an iconography class. With a growing sense of urgency, a pressing need to find a new way forward in life, but no confidence it would actually work, I took the course. It was November 2019, and I just had time to finish the course and get started on my very first commissioned work moments before the whole world went kablooey in March 2020.

 

Through the entire crazed Covid period, I painted.

The world locked down, and we all watched in growing anxiety a world that had ceased to even try to make sense. Lockdowns were followed by riots and burnings in the US, churches being burned in Canada and Europe… the summer of 2020, and the insanity of more lockdowns last winter… I painted. I guess I just didn’t know what else to do. And the more I painted, the less interesting everything else became.

 

 

 

Sacred art is the solution and I intend to share

Every day, bit by bit, the world of medieval, Gothic and early Renaissance sacred art - and most importantly it’s meaning - filled my entire interior gaze. The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn. The more I painted, the more I started re-defining myself, re-understanding who I was supposed to be.

 

The world of beauty, rationality and divine meaning this form of art represents seems to me like the solution to the insoluble problem of a world that had entirely lost its compass. I started a small sacred art website, Hilary White Sacred Art , a Facebook page and a Substack so I could start to try to share the incredible things I was discovering.

 

 

 

A way of living, but where?

But knowing which direction I was going left me with a huge problem; the Mass. Access to the sacramental life was already very difficult. Masses across Italy were winking out one by one. It was impossible to find a suitable place I could afford that allowed me regular access to the Mass and sacraments.

 

A signal flare in a dark sky

Then in July this year three things happened that converged to tell me exactly where to go. 1. The Italian government announced that in the coming autumn it would be imposing further restrictions on the daily lives of anyone who refused to get the mRNA vaccines. 2. The pope declared that the people who love the Traditional Mass, and the Old Faith it embodies, are no longer welcome in the institutional Novus Ordo Catholic Church.

 

And 3... the breakthrough... the Consoling Sisters of the Sacred Heart bought a large convent in the historic centre of the town of Narni. The Mass and sacramental life is now available there. It was like a signal flare in a dark sky. Here is where you’re supposed to go. And do it right now. No time to waste.

 

And in case you’re wondering, yes. It’s that Narni …

 

To shorten this story, with a renewed sense of purpose and direction, I spent August and September searching for a place to rent within walking/biking distance of the convent on the hill. And as of yesterday, I have a contract for one year for a rented, furnished flat, right at the very top of the town, next to the castle. Here's a tour:




Yes, I’m moving to Narnia.

 

The Plan: a centre of art and authentic Christian spirituality

There’s no question now that it’s time to take this seriously, to turn all my attention to this work, but also on ways to share what I’m receiving with the rest of the world.



The plan is to set up the large front room – with the good light and spectacular view – as a professional studio. Not only to paint, but to teach, to host classes from other instructors, and possibly even talks on sacred art, and the spiritual life it nurtures. My hope is to create a centre in Narni of traditional Catholic spirituality and sacred art, a place for people to come and benefit from these ancient transcendent things in this beautiful place.

 

 

 

But now I need help. There’s no way I can manage on my own the approximately (US) $5000.00 it will need to secure the place and move into it. (See below for the breakdown of expenses.)

 

Of your charity I hope you can help me realise this dream that’s been growing so long. Any amount is welcome, five or ten or twenty dollars or more. And I want to say thank you in advance, since I’ve never been disappointed by the kindness of my friends, readers and benefactors. Especially since the difficulties of 2016, I’ve never felt alone. God bless you.

 

Anticipated Expenses
Mover: €2,400
First, last and damage deposit: €1,350
Freezer chest: €100
1/2 month rent at current flat: €225
Remaining flat electric/gas bill: €220
Fundraiser fees: ~€155
Euro total: €4,450

Grand total, after conversion from Euro to Dollars: $5,150