Hot off the press - the 2024 New Norcia calendar features the works on paper of Father Lesmes Lopez OSB. An exhibition in St Ildephonsus’ large and small dining rooms.

From around 1906 Abbot Fulgentius Torres, the second abbot of New Norcia, was busily undertaking several large-scale building programmes, which really placed the Spanish stamp on the town’s architecture. The two large schools under construction, namely St Gertrude’s for the European girls, and St Ildephonsus’ for the European boys were designed around central chapels. Torres wanted these chapels to be ornamented such that when you walked inside, you could be anywhere in Italy or Spain. To do that, he needed a master ornamentor. He borrowed Father Lesmes Lopez OSB from the abbey of Montserrat in 1910, first to perfect his painting style in art school in Rome, then to come to New Norcia. Fr. Lesmes arrived in New Norcia in 1913 and left for Spain in 1921, completing his huge legacy of artworks in just under nine years! Aside from the expansive ornamentation works, New Norcia has a collection of some 900 of Fr. Lesmes’ works on paper. The images in this calendar are part of that collection, now a new exhibition in the dining rooms of St Ildephonsus’ College.

This calendar shows the Liturgical calendar as celebrated by the Benedictine Community of New Norcia.