by Stefani Manowski
August 18, 2014

Father Frank Sabatte, CSP, was inspired.

The tapestries in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles created by John Nava stirred something in the Paulist artist. Father Sabatte created a method of “random-stitch, free-motion embroidery,” and last week he unveiled his latest work – a life-size opus of Paulist Founder, Servant of God Father Isaac Hecker.

Father Sabatte, who is the founding director of Openings, a ministry outreach to artists in New York City, based embroidered piece on the only photograph of Father Hecker in which he is looking directly at the viewer.

“By creating the work at life size (Hecker was 6’2” tall) and with him looking at me, I had a powerful sense of encountering him, which I hope other viewers will have as well,” said Father Sabatte, 63.

Born in San Jose, Calif., Father Sabatte discovered his talent for drawing at the age of 12. The budding artist received formal training in studio art at the College of Fine Arts of the University of California at Los Angeles. It was there he first encountered the Paulists after a friend asked the future priest to help make a banner at the school’s Paulist-run Newman Center. He was hooked on art and the Paulists.

“My passion for art came out of my experience at U.C.L.A.,” he said. “I was drawn to the Paulists because they truly respect the gifts of the individual. I felt that I was part of the church, and that the church needed me. I liked the whole idea of building church.”

Father Sabatte not only became a student leader at the Newman Center and an art teacher after graduation, but entered the Paulist formation program in 1975. He was ordained in 1980. Since then, Father Sabatte has served in campus ministry at the University of Connecticut; University of California at San Diego; The Ohio State University in Columbus; University of California, at Santa Barbara; University of California at Berkeley; Boston University; and the University of Texas at Austin. He has also served as pastoral vicar at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Los Angeles and St. Cyril’s in Tucson. Openings debuted its first art show in 2007.

“Openings is a continuation of campus ministry,” Father Sabatte explained.

Openings provides a forum where the young artists can become “more aware of the spiritual mystery they are already involved in,” he said. “Artists are hard wired to connect with the transcendent whether they know it or not.”

An artist is unconscious of 70 percent of what they do, according to Father Sabatte.“If you ask them why they did something, they will say they don’t know,” he said. “Something just moved them along. That something is the Spirit. Openings was created so they can help one another see that.”

A young artist once told Father Sabatte, who primarily sculpts and works in random-stitch free motion embroidery, that she felt like she was praying as she painted.

“I told her, ‘No, you are praying,’” he said. “When you get in to your work, it is contemplation.”

Father Sabatte’s portrait of Father Hecker will find a permanent home at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York City, where the priest-artist resides and has a studio.

“My faith informs my art and my art informs my faith,” he said.

The next Openings exhibit – titled #occupycommonground – will feature the work of 27 artists and runs from Sept. 11 through Oct. 23 at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, 60th Street and Columbus Ave. in New York City. For more information, keep an eye on #occupycommonground on Twitter or visit openingsny.com.