Caravaggio: The "Bad Boy" of Sacred Art?

Sacred art aims to open a window into heaven — but its creators were rarely angelic. Their inspiration often rose from struggle as much as faith.

Caravaggio (1571–1610) was the ultimate paradox: a master of light and shadow, grace and violence. As notorious for brawls as for brilliance, he painted with the intensity of a man wrestling his own soul.

In The Calling of St Matthew, he freezes the instant of awakening — that charged moment when divine light cuts through the everyday. Rev’d Daniel Harris invites us to linger in that moment, to let the scene act as prayer and meditation.

Caravaggio’s art still provokes because it’s brutally honest: holiness isn’t a polished perfection but mercy colliding with reality — God’s light falling on flawed humanity.

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