Icon Postcard - Black Elk

Icons by Br. Robert Lentz, ofm. Influenced by his Russian Orthodox background and a period of study with a master iconographer, Lentz's unique style blends classical Eastern iconography with contemporary elements and "witnesses." Dimensions: 6" x 4" About this icon: When he was nine years old, Black Elk, the great Oglala holy man, was shown a magnificent vision by the sacred Thunder-beings of the west, which changed his life. He was taken up into the heavens and given powers to heal and protect his people. He was also shown glimpses of their future. He was charged with their welfare and given a symbolic red staff to plant in their midst and bring to life. The vision took on universal qualities. "And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father." Although he became a Roman Catholic and even worked with the Jesuit missionaries as a lay catechist, his vision and its responsibilities continued to haunt him. The missionaries insisted that he abandon the traditional religion of his people, but in his old age he collaborated with two Anglo-American writers to record the sacred rites of the Lakota, and his own life and shamanic vision. He grieved that he had never been able to care for his people as he had been charged - to bring the sacred red staff to life - and asked to be taken to Harney Peak in the Black Hills so that he could pray for this once more. In this icon, the Thunder-beings are depicted as flaming eyes. Black Elk is praying for the earth and its peoples with his sacred pipe. The red staff, planted in the great hoop which is our planet, has brought forth its first leaf, as a symbol of life and hope.