Muralist to create 'Hall of American Saints' at Catholic school

Published: 2004-06-21

GLADSTONE, Mo. (CNS) -- Bare walls won't do at St. Andrew School in Gladstone. Not when there's an artist in the parish and spiritual lessons to learn. Lesly Fruge, who is 23 and the mother of two toddlers, will spend her summer bringing the "Hall of American Saints" to life in a much-traveled hallway connecting the school with the gym and the pre-school with the cafeteria. And she's doing it for free, she said, as she finished her first mural of St. Frances Cabrini, the first U.S. citizen to be canonized. She won't even let the school buy her paints and brushes. "I love this parish," she told The Catholic Key, newspaper of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese. "This is what I can give." The mural of St. Frances Cabrini is a virtual storybook in paint. Surrounding the portrait of the saint is the skyline of New York, where she began her ministry in 1889 by founding an orphanage, which is also depicted in the mural. There is also a ship, symbolizing the saint's many travels to establish charitable agencies across the United States and South America.

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