We’d like to share with you the amaizng art and iconography of Jack Pachuta.
A devout Roman Catholic, Pachuta wanted to do volunteer work after he retired from the chemical business in 1998 and spent six months with the Ignatian Volunteer Corps, giving the Eucharist to inmates in the worst cell blocks of the Philadelphia Prison System. It was a horrific, life-changing experience for him. Pachuta always had an interest in art but no formal training. He had been raised in a Byzantine-rite Catholic Church, where icons are venerated, and took a course in icon-making at an Antiochian Orthodox monastery. He found his true calling, creating holy images for cards printed with prayers and messages of encouragement for prison inmates, altered in ways that would speak to the kind of people he had encountered in his volunteer work. His icons have been displayed in Roman Catholic, Byzantine Rite Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran and Brethren in Christ places of worship: churches, chapels, shrines, retreat centers and seminaries in North America, Mexico, Central America and Europe.
An icon of Mary, Mother of Captives is enshrined in the Healing Garden of St. Augustine Church in Philadelphia, PA. They are in the collections of many priests, deacons, nuns, prison ministers, laity, friends and relatives. Hundreds of thousands of book markers and prayer cards have been made from his painting of St. Nicholas.
Thousands of prayer cards have been made from his paintings of the Face of Jesus, Mary Holding Handcuffs, Mary Entering a Prison Cell and the Crucifix on a Cyclone Fence. They are used in prison ministry all across the US. Donating paintings and prayer cards is Jack’s way of using his talents to serve God.
Face of Jesus #1 
Ecce Homo 
Mary, Mother of Captives
You can find more of Jack’s art and icons here: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jack-pachuta
