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Healy 102 Ceiling Paintings

The National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature (NRCBL), located in Healy Hall room 102, is graced with ceiling paintings by Brother Francis Schroen, S.J. Schroen was a self-taught artist. He was born in 1857 in Germany and came to the United States as an infant. Schroen was raised in Maryland and worked as a house painter and wall decorator. His wife, of 14 years, died of an illness when he was 35. In 1898, at age 41, he was accepted as a Jesuit lay-brother. Schroen's paintings and decorative art are found in several Jesuit churches and colleges - Boston College, Georgetown, Fordham, St. Joseph's (in Philadelphia), the Gesu church (also in Philadelphia), the cathedral of Kingston, Jamaica, and the church of the Holy Name in New Orleans. He died in 1925 at Georgetown.

Additional information about Schroen can be found at the following:

• Boston College, Gasson Hall Rotunda
• Boston College Magazine, Fall 2002 - Brother Schroen is featured in section 7.
• Georgetown University, Carroll Parlor, Healy Hall 107
• Georgetown University, Lauinger Library, Special Collections Division
• The search for freedom, and freedom found : the life and art of Brother Francis C. Schroen, S.J. - Thesis by Virginia M. Keeler, 1989.

	Francis Schroen, S.J. Photo from Boston College Magazine Fall 2002.		Babylonian Bricks. Cuneiform
	Book of Kells		Douay Bible
	Hebrew Scroll		Hieroglyphics
	Hindustani		Japanese
	Mexican Ideograph		Rock of Behistun Persian
	Ruthwell Cross Runes		Ulfilas Gothic

Paintings copyright Georgetown University.

Last updated: May 2007