A wall in the Bishop Arts District received blessings Wednesday morning from the Rev. Ignacio Olvera, parochial vicar of St. Cecilia Catholic Church.
A new mural depicting the Virgin of Guadalupe, by Steve Hunter, is just down the alley from his “Raised in Oak Cliff” Bat Girl mural.
“Our two saints here in Oak Cliff: Bat Girl and the Blessed Mother,” joked David Spence, the owner of Good Space, who commissioned the mural for the building where he offices.
Spence was raised Baptist, but his wife is Catholic, and they baptized their now-adult children in the Catholic church.
He just recently converted, however. Most churches discontinued the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, the weekly classes most people take to become Catholic, because of the pandemic. So Spence found a monk at Cistercian Abbey, Father Thomas Esposito, to guide him through the process, which takes about a year.
The piece brings a bit of religious art to Bishop Arts, where we come to have fun and celebrate, Olvera told a gathering of about 10 people.
“We are reminded that God is a presence in our midst,” Olvera said.
Olvera is from Ocampo, the same hometown as most of Good Space’s maintenance staff, who gathered with a few other neighbors for prayers, pan dulces and sprinklings of holy water.
Known as Father Ignacio, Olvera consulted on the artwork, and the artist left the piece unsigned.
It features a background that is inspired by the Aztec calendar, and the artist put his own spin on the rays of light behind the saint. Our Lady of Guadalupe, known as “Empress of the Americas,” is an apparition of the Virgin Mary who is said to have appeared to Juan Diego, an Aztec who converted to Christianity, on Dec. 9, 1531.
She is the patron saint of Mexico and the Catholic Diocese of Dallas.
