It takes a long time for Father Jerry Bleem to answer the bell. It rings somewhere deep in the empty building, a long walk from the friary door. Saint Paschal’s, an Oak Brook school that became a home for 90 retired Franciscans, is soon to be sold to the Du Page County Forest Preserve District. Only Father Bleem and four other brothers live here now, rattling around in its vastness, tending to its needs until the order finally shucks it off.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Bleem enrolled in an MFA program at the School of the Art Institute and soon began to see popular religious art with new eyes. “Before I went to school, I would have made fun of this,” he says, pointing to the collection of crosses, Madonnas, and Sacred Hearts that decorate his studio. “Now I realize these objects don’t have to be personally significant for me.” From the wall above, a half dozen Jesuses gaze tenderly down on him, their exposed hearts aflame. “I see them as historic documents,” he continues, “which is also why I collect vestments.”
He’s brought out two long wardrobe boxes. Bleem began collecting these costumes when he fell heir to garments and scraps salvaged by another friar, a tailor, now dead. The contents of these boxes are spectacular: a gold-trimmed overgarment, called a dalmatic, of silken crimson velvet; another, an angel-decked, art deco woven chasuble that looks like polished brass; another with hand-painted leather trim, stiff as a sandwich board. There are accessories–stoles and maniples and burses–and the decorative bands called galloons and orphreys, all enhanced with embroidery fine enough for fine art–embellishment on the embellishments, a profusion of lace, sequins, beads, and braid.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos/Paul L. Meredith, Michael Tropea.
