December 10, 2025 // Diocese

Artist Finds Inspiration in ‘Holy Men and Women’

Paula Lent

Through his current art exhibit at Holy Cross College’s St. Joseph Gallery, “Holy Men and Women,” sacred artist Zack Okello reminds us that we are not alone. We exist within a wide ecclesial community of disciples: men and women building the Kingdom of God.

“Holy Men and Women” is part of Okello’s ongoing work as a storyteller, a calling he discovered many years ago while studying art in his native Kenya.

Growing up in a small Christian community in Western Kenya, Okello said he was always creating art, capturing his environment. He combined his love of art with his strong Catholic faith when he pursued his education at a Catholic art school founded by Norwegian priest Father Hans Bergman. His experience there “inspired me to become who I am today,” Okello said.

At the art school, Okello was greatly influenced by his new environment – learning figure drawing from Father Bergman in a building beside a church, where he was serenaded by the sounds of the choir’s rehearsals wafting through the air – and found his niche in sacred art.

As a sacred artist, he is part of a rich history.

“Especially in the Catholic Church, faith and art go a long way back,” Okello told Today’s Catholic. “And there’s a rich tradition where popes used to commission artists to tell religious stories through art and create these beautiful spaces for people to pray there. I think that also keeps me going, keeps me wanting to create religious art – the fact that when I look at the history of faith and art it goes way, way, way, way back.”

Within the realm of sacred art, Okello has a specific storytelling passion: delighting in sharing the stories of lesser-known disciples, especially women and people of color. He began on this path during art school, when he learned the story of Servant of God Cardinal Maurice Michael Otunga (1923-2003), the first Kenyan cardinal. Discovering a priest who was passionate about advocating for the voiceless and refugees in Kenya was very inspiring to Okello.

“I just admired him, and I would make drawings of him here and there. And I got commissioned to make a few pieces of different priests,” Okello said of his first steps.

Since then, Okello has found no shortage of disciples to inspire him, and he feels blessed to be part of sharing their stories. Among the disciples depicted in the gallery is Haitian Venerable Pierre Toussaint (1766-1853), who spent nearly half of his life in slavery – part of that time in the United States. After gaining his freedom, he redeemed first his sister and then his future wife, with whom he later raised his orphaned niece. Toussaint became a prominent figure among Haitian immigrants in New York and was known for assisting with employment and housing needs, as well as creating a credit union. He also fundraised to create the first Catholic school for free Black children in New York before dying at the age of 87. Since Toussaint earned his living as a hairdresser, his portrait features hairdressing tools prominently behind him.

Venerable Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange (1784-1882) is another Haitian whose portrait is displayed in the exhibit. After coming to America by way of Cuba, Mother Lange established a school for Black children in Baltimore, funding the school herself. Continuing to make a significant mark on the educational landscape, Mother Lange later established the Oblate Sisters of Providence, who in turn founded St. Francis Academy, America’s oldest continuously operating school for Black children. Okello tells her story by depicting her in a classroom with happily studious pupils.

St. Katharine Drexel (1858-1955), the founder of the first Black Catholic university, Xavier University in New Orleans, is also shown surrounded by students: some happily playing, one reading, and others sharing fellowship. Drexel’s order, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, established Black Catholic schools in 13 states, in addition to 40 mission centers and 23 rural schools. In her portrait, she stands in front of a school building surrounded by schoolchildren.

Other disciples depicted in the gallery include St. Laura Montoya, the patron saint of orphans and those who suffer from racial discrimination; Felicity and Perpetua, well-known third-century martyrs; and Native American St. Kateri Tekakwitha.

The personal story of each portrait’s subject has taught Okello something valuable.

“The passion that they put into what they do inspires me,” he told Today’s Catholic, noting that “they’re just people, good people who didn’t have a lot but chose to be generous with the little that they had. And that inspires me and makes me want to participate in their stories being told.”

Works by Zack Okello displayed at Holy Cross College include Servant of God Maurice Otunga.

Okello said he often finds something to “relate to” in each story, and since he is an art teacher at Holy Cross Catholic School in South Bend, the number of men and women featured in the gallery who have made an impact in the sphere of education is perhaps unsurprising.

Okello said that when it comes to finding more disciples whose stories to tell, he’s often inspired by asking himself who in the Church would be brave enough to stand up and speak to a challenge the world is currently facing: “What are we suffering from in the Christian community or just in the world? What is it that we are really suffering through? And in the Catholic Church or in the Christian community, who is brave enough to stand up and at least try to solve this in whatever way they can? That’s how I go about it,” he explained.

“It started a long time ago, but the more I keep learning, the more I keep creating.”

Okello’s exhibit, “Holy Men and Women,” will be on display through Friday, December 19, in the Driscoll Lounge at Holy Cross College.