Christina Dochwat, celebrated iconographer for the Ukrainian and Byzantine Catholic Churches, has died at 91
Her distinctive icons can be seen at churches in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., London, Rome, and Kyiv, Ukraine.
Over 50 years, from 1956 to 2006, Christina Dochwat created hundreds, maybe thousands, of colorful and inspirational icons, screens, frescoes, and mosaic images for the Ukrainian Greek and Byzantine Rite Catholic Churches.
At nearly 80 churches, cathedrals, shrines, and monasteries throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, viewers can see her sometimes soaring, always breathtaking, paintings of religious figures in her distinctive consoling style. “She made her faces lovely so you were drawn to them,” said longtime friend and caregiver Eugene Luciw.
In 2021, Ms. Dochwat was awarded the highest honor in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for her “long-term and extremely fruitful work in the field of church painting.” Borys Gudziak, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, told her: “Icon painting is first and foremost a spiritual act. In all the churches you have worked, your art will call for prayer and union with the Lord for centuries to come, God willing.”
She told church officials: “The most important thing for me is that my work can motivate people to pray. When people pray in front of an icon, it is not my work. It is God’s work.”
Ms. Dochwat decorated the papal throne and the rest of the church in 1979 when Pope John Paul II visited Philadelphia and the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on North Franklin Street. Her icons can be seen at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in London, and the St. Michael Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Her signature works are a Byzantine Rite chapel at the National Shrine in Washington and the towering Mother of God mosaic at the Philadelphia Ukrainian cathedral on Franklin Street. For five decades, she balanced on scaffolding and installed her creations on screens, walls, and vaulted ceilings. “I’m not afraid of heights,” she told church officials.
On Thursday, March 26, Christina Dochwat died of age-associated decline at the Brandywine senior living community in Upper Providence, Delaware County. She was 91.
“Here,” Ms. Dochwat told the Pottsville Republican in 1995, “I have the opportunity to create something that will bring people closer to God.”
Born in Ukraine, Ms. Dochwat came to Philadelphia in 1947, when she was 13. She earned two college degrees in art and design, and, combining her talent and deep faith, created new iconography for churches in New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Ohio, Connecticut, and elsewhere. In Pennsylvania, she worked on projects with her sister, Luba, and other artists in Pittsburgh, Scranton, Lansdale, Warrington, Pottstown, Hazleton, Bridgeport, Phoenixville, and elsewhere.
Admirers praised her “tender, vibrant icons” for “radiating the love of God ... and inviting people into an encounter with the Lord.” Gudziak said her work showed “beauty, impeccable filigree, and innovative style.”
One parishioner in Philadelphia said the eyes of her figures appear to follow viewers as they move around the church. She told the Republican in 1995: “The depth of the eyes is the ability to look into the human soul. The long nose represents wisdom. The gold that is represented is to emphasize something that is not of this earth.”
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In 1995, she bedecked Ss. Peter and Paul Byzantine Catholic Church in Minersville, Schuylkill County, and a parishioner told the Republican: “It looks beautiful. I just love going to church.”
Christina M. Dochwat was born Sept. 22, 1934, in rural Burkaniv, Ukraine. Her father died when she was young, and she relocated to Philadelphia after World War II with her mother, sister, and uncle.
She graduated from the old Ukrainian Catholic all-girls St. Basil’s Academy in Jenkintown, and teachers there recognized and encouraged her artistic endeavors. She earned art degrees at Ringling College of Art and Design in Florida, and Philadelphia’s old University of the Arts.
Ms. Dochwat was a longtime member of Ss. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in Bridgeport. She lived in the Logan section of Philadelphia before moving to Jeffersonville, Montgomery County, in the 1990s and relocated to Brandywine a few years ago.
She enjoyed bowling and recorded six holes-in-one as a golfer. In 1982, Inquirer outdoors writer Ben Callaway reported that Ms. Dochwat, on vacation in Acapulco, Mexico, “caught a 215-pound Pacific sailfish on her first-ever deep-sea fishing trip.”
For years, she cared for her ailing mother and sister. Friends called her “a wonderful woman and a devoted servant,” “a truly gifted artist,” and “a real pleasure and joy to be with” in online tributes.
Luciw said: “She was upbeat and bubbly. She always confronted challenges and enjoyed life. Her work is truly majestic.”
Ms. Dochwat is survived by relatives in Florida and Ukraine. Her sister died earlier.
Services were held earlier.
Donations in her name may be made to the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 819 N. Eighth St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19123.
