The following article appeared in "The Catholic Herald" - Diocese of Madison Wisconsin on April 17, 2008.

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Pilgrim Icon of St. Raphael to visit parishes
People to pray for future of cathedral

By Mary C. Uhler
Catholic Herald Staff

Beginning this week at St. Patrick Parish in Madison, a special Pilgrim Icon of St. Raphael will visit every parish in the Diocese of Madison.

Bishop Robert C. Morlino blessed the icon on Sunday, April 13, at St. Patrick Church. Eventually it is hoped that the icon will be enshrined in the new St. Raphael Cathedral.

Journey began in Connecticut

How did this St. Raphael icon come to Madison? The icon began its journey in Connecticut at St. Edmund's Retreat located on Enders Island in Mystic, Conn.

In a telephone interview, Fr. Thomas F. X. Hoar, a priest of the Society of St. Edmund who is president of St. Edmund's Retreat, explained how this remarkable icon came to Madison.

Chad McEachern, currently serving as director of the Diocese of Madison's Office of Stewardship and Development, was employed at St. Edmund's Retreat in 2005. That was the year St. Raphael Cathedral in Madison was destroyed by an arson fire.

McEachern knew Bishop Morlino at the time of the fire. "When the cathedral burned, Chad was working with us," recalled Father Hoar. "Some of us started praying for the cathedral."

Showing prayerful support

St. Edmund's Retreat is the home of St. Michael's Institute of Sacred Art. At the institute, world-renowned artists provide instruction to students in such disciplines as iconography, manuscript illumination, gilding, stained glass, fresco, and Gregorian chant.

The Enders Island community wanted to show their prayerful support of the bishop and the Diocese of Madison in a special way. They decided to have an icon of St. Raphael written.

Father Hoar explained that an icon is written, because it is a prayer. "It is a prayer and the promise of a prayer," said the priest. "Our giving this icon to the Diocese of Madison is a promise to pray for the cathedral and the Diocese of Madison."

As the Pilgrim Icon of St. Raphael travels throughout the diocese, Father Hoar said it would be "gathering prayers of the people of the diocese for the intercession of St. Raphael and the good of the cathedral."

Process of writing the icon

Father Hoar said the process of writing an icon itself involves prayer and fasting. Vladislav Andrejev, an instructor at St. Michael's Institute of Sacred Art, wrote this icon. "He is a master iconographer, a Russian