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Byzantine-Style Iconographer Tells Story Behind Martin Luther King Jr. Icon

byzantine MLK jr icon martin luther king
An iconographer has created a Byzantine style portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. Credit: Youtube/Screenshot

An iconographer paid tribute to iconic civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. by creating a Byzantine-style icon that portrays him as a martyred saint.

This icon is the work of Robert Lentz, who had been living in a cloistered monastery at the time of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and 1970s. The story behind the striking portrait of the civil rights pioneer is fascinating, as Lentz explains:

“When those exciting things were happening I was behind cloistered walls, very unaware of what was happening in the world. So the Civil Rights Movement came, matured, and slowed down without me participating in it.”

So the Franciscan monk painted the famous African-American leader entirely from photographs in books and footage from documentaries.

Lentz finally left the cloister after 18 years and started to support himself by painting icons, or “writing” saints. He was almost entirely unaware of the many sweeping societal changes that had taken place in America, explaining that he had to educate himself and get up to speed on what had happened in his country during those turbulent years.

Monk paints MLK Jr: “He was a saint who lived with the people”

The Franciscan monk says that, as a Catholic, he had thought he would have a hard time painting the icon of a Baptist priest. However, after learning about the work of the great leader, he filled the icon with rich symbolism, and the resulting work of art is very powerful and thought-provoking.

“He was a saint who lived with the people, struggled with the people,” he says when asked to describe the incredible life of King. Lentz painted the murdered activist’s name in Greek at the top of the icon, hailing him as “Ο Άγιος Μαρτίνος” (Saint Martin) in Byzantine calligraphy.

The image is a likeness of King’s famous mugshot taken after his arrest on February 22, 1956 during the seminal Montgomery Bus Boycott which he had helped spearhead. Reverend King’s suit is shown somewhat wrinkled in the icon to resemble the robe an ancient saint would wear.

The placard the minister holds shows his prisoner number at the Montgomery County Jail, just as he held it in the famous photograph.

“He was arrested so many times, and that was part of his martyrdom,” explains Lentz.

The prison bars behind represent the 29 different times he was arrested and jailed for his activism, as well as the overall enslavement and oppression of African-Americans in the United States. The text on the scroll he holds is from his speech in Albany, Georgia, given on December 14, 1961.

The final chapter of MLK Jr’s life of valiant sacrifice was his martyrdom, which occurred on April 4, 1968, when he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, making him a modern-day saint in the eyes of many.

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