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If you follow me on Facebook/Instagram, you may have heard my exciting news.
Sometime in June 2025, I submitted an image to the Pontifical International Marian Academy in Rome. The theme was Mary bridging the gap between cultures.
The icon I had painted 'Our Lady Tabernacle of the World' is very dear to me, and seemed to fit the theme, so I submitted it. Two weeks later, I received a letter saying... I'd made the finals.
I was one of the top 20 finalists, and I was just over the moon. One week into August, I received two letters in Italian, which of course I could not read, but I saw my name, so I uploaded them to Google Translate. At first I doubted the translation - was this saying what I think it was saying? I didn't want to get too excited before I was certain.
I sent it to my husband, and he asked me back: "Is this saying what I think it's saying?" For good measure we sent it off to a priest who speaks Italian, and he replied: "Yes, you won. You won first prize!"
We have been invited to go to Rome, and I'll be receiving the International Marian Award. This was far outside of my expectations - we weren't even going to take a vacation this summer because work and everything else has kept us really busy.
The awards ceremony will to start off with a beautiful Mass at St. Stephen's. It's a chapel, one of the oldest Ethiopian chapels in the Vatican Gardens. From there the group that I'm with will then go to an auditorium to have a private audience with the Pope.
After this I will actually be able to meet the Pope, and I'm going to present him with the icon.
She's named Our Lady Tabernacle of the World because she was the first tabernacle, because she carried our Lord within her.
The features of Our Lady in this image are clearly of a Black woman. Her white and gold robes and bejeweled golden crown are inspired by the devotional statue of Our Lady of Africa, which is in the Basilica of Notre Dame d’Afrique, in Algiers. That statue of Our Lady is the object of pilgrimages and has been credited with many miraculous healings.
Mary here presents Jesus to us in the Eucharist inscribed with a Crucifix. The icon thus still resembles a tabernacle, but in a greater way reminds us that Mary herself was a tabernacle, carrying Christ within her, and then presenting him to humanity.
Of course I debated how we would be able to make such a trip on short notice, but my family and friends have all so clearly supported it, to such and extent that some have offered to make it easier for us to go!
We are humbled and grateful, and we're going to take all of our friends and our family in our hearts. To add to the joy of the occasion, we'll also be there for the canonization of Pier Giorgio and Carlo Acutis, two other beautiful saints that I've painted.
I will take your prayers with me. If you have any special prayers you'd like me to take, you can instant message me, email me, text me.
AMDG
+ Vivian
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