ST. CLOUD, Minn. OSV News – Growing up in West Virginia, Christopher Santer was always drawing.
“I could see how to translate 3D into 2D pretty early,” he said. “My earliest interest in art was drawing buildings and bridges, and that interest has remained my whole life.”
As a professional artist and a Catholic high school art teacher, he still does landscapes and architecture, but he is most sought after for his sacred artwork.
“The Magnificat,” one of Santer’s early commissions, greets visitors to Catholic United Financial’s St. Cloud branch office as part of CUF’s sponsorship of the Diocese of St. Cloud’s “Jubilee Passport: Pilgrims of Hope” project. The painting depicts Mary holding up her infant son.
During the Catholic Church’s Jubilee Year – which was opened by Pope Francis on Christmas Eve, 2024, and will be closed by Pope Leo XIV on Jan. 6 – Catholics have been encouraged to visit sites listed in the diocese’s passport.
Pilgrims were encouraged to make a special stop during the year at the downtown St. Cloud location to view “The Magnificat,” pray and visit with CUF staff.
“We are getting towards the end of the 2025 Jubilee Year and the artwork that is displayed at our St. Cloud branch is truly a gift to everyone that has an opportunity to view it,” said Emily Ripplinger, St. Cloud branch manager. “We have had so many members compliment us on the addition of the painting in our branch and tell their family and friends about it. We have had some very meaningful conversations with our members and their friends and family.”
Catholic United’s director of mission engagement, Nate Lamusga, was instrumental in bringing “The Magnificat” to the St. Cloud office. He has been a fan of Santer’s art for a long time and knows him personally.
“When (we were) exploring how to participate in the Jubilee Passport project, one of our first ideas was to include an installation by a local Catholic artist,” Lamusga told The Central Minnesota Catholic, St. Cloud’s diocesan news outlet. “As it happened, the very day we discussed it at work, Christopher sat down next to me at a Catholic middle school basketball game where our daughters were playing each other. I took that as a clear sign that we were meant to collaborate on this.”
When it was first brought up to him, Santer said that “The Magnificat” was the only original piece that he had available – and it turned out to be a perfect fit for the Jubilee Passport project.
“It’s a powerful image for pilgrims to reflect on as they renew their faith and hope in God,” Lamusga said. “Personally, I’m drawn to the joy on Mary’s face – it reflects her humility and her willingness to embrace God’s plan, which becomes a source of deep, authentic joy. It reminds me that God wants that same joy for each of us, and that’s a hope-filled message worth sharing.”
“The Magnificat” was originally commissioned for the maternity ward of St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital in Parkersburg, West Virginia, Santer’s hometown. His grandfather was a doctor and delivered more than 11,000 babies there before he retired in 1978.
“I have a very special connection to the hospital where my grandfather worked and also where my own father would spend most of his career as a cardiologist,” Santer said. “I wanted to portray Mary in complete joy with her infant son, and I also love to portray Jesus as an infant in his most vulnerable and dependent state, in the same place that we all enter the world.”
The painting was in the hospital’s maternity ward for 20 years until the hospital closed, Santer said, which made it possible for him reacquire it, making it available for this project.
Santer was raised Catholic and never fell away from the Church, but describes a real conversion and deepening of his faith at age 22. He had just graduated from the University of Dayton in Ohio and was attending graduate school at Ohio University.
“It really started me on a path of wanting more and seeking God more over the next few years,” he said.
It was during graduate school, in the midst of his conversion, that he was asked to do his first sacred art piece, “Christ with Children” in 1993. The 3-foot-by-5-foot painting was commissioned by his home parish, St. Margaret Mary in Parkersburg for the cry room.
That led to Parkersburg Catholic High School’s commissioning of Christ with a teenage youth, “The Good Shepherd,” in 1998 and then “The Magnificat” in 1999.
After earning his master of fine arts in painting, he felt called to a year of service. That call led him to Minnesota and NET Ministries – an organization based in West St. Paul that equips young Catholics to travel the country on volunteer retreat teams.
“I was five years into real conversion in my life and wanted to give a year of volunteer work,” he said. “I had built houses as a summer job. So, I was looking at maybe a year of doing Habitat and I had a friend who had done that full time. But it was NET that pulled me in.”
After completing his volunteer year on a retreat team, Santer remained at NET for three years as a staff member.
During his time there, the organization commissioned a series of saint portraits. The 15
portraits, done in charcoal, are still displayed at the NET Center in West St. Paul. A similar series was also commissioned by the St. Paul Seminary.
“I’ve done 140 saints now since 2008, starting with the seminary and they have probably 80 of those outside all the dorm rooms,” Santer said. “That started me on that series, and I’ve since not only been commissioned by other people and other Churches, but just periodically when I feel like there’s a gap in my offerings, I add one.”
He recently finished St. Margaret Mary – realizing that he hadn’t done a portrait of the patron of his home parish – and gifted it to them.
Santer, who also teaches art at Providence Academy in Plymouth, is currently working on a large commission for an addition to the chapel at the NET Center. The plans are still being finalized, but he says the project will include 24 saints.
Creating sacred art, Santer explains, demands deep research, prayer and reflection. He relies on the guidance of the Holy Spirit for inspiration. “I want the saints I portray to come alive as real people,” he said. “Not stylized, but as if they are someone you could meet on the street.”
For those who encounter his work, the impact is profound.
“‘The Magnificat’ is truly a gift to everyone who has the opportunity to view it,” said Ripplinger. “I am personally moved by the painting, and it offers a way to experience a deeper connection to God through art.”
“Not everyone can bring their faith into the workplace,” she added, “so we have not taken it for granted.”
Dianne Towalski is social media manager at The Central Minnesota Catholic, magazine of the Diocese of St. Cloud. This story was originally published by The Central Minnesota Catholic and distributed through a partnership with OSV News.