MY OPINION ESSAYS
Child of the World Studies
Digital sketch/rendering, 2023-on going, Jean-Marie Lee
Child of the World Series
By Jean-Marie Lee
This icon is inspired by the Nativity Altar mosaic at the Rosary Basilica in Lourdes, France, originally created by Jean-Marie-Melchior Doze (1827–1913), a 19th-century French painter celebrated for his Christian art. I began painting my own version in 2023 at the request of one of my aunts. Since then, it has become an ongoing muse for my reflection on the Rosary, the Marian apparitions, and my broader art project: the Child of the World studies. This carousel of images shows where I am right now with these studies—a four-corners-of-the-world exploration of cultures, environments, and the diverse physical traits shaped by evolution.
At its core, this series is deeply rooted in the Catholic art tradition of sharing our unique talents. Over a decade ago, a religious sister told me that seeing Christ in another person is a truly mystical experience. As an artist, I am entirely dedicated to the visual interpretation of that mystery.
My connection to Lourdes and its history runs deep. If you look at my refrigerator, you’ll see two Saint Bernadette holy cards—gifts that remind me of a pivotal time in my life. I first truly learned about Bernadette when I worked as a grotto caretaker at Notre Dame from August 2018 to July 2019. Bernadette is, of course, the young visionary who saw Our Lady of Lourdes. She grew up in a level of extreme poverty that makes Dolly Parton’s childhood look wealthy. Following her father's financial ruin, her family of six was forced to cram into Le Cachot—a damp, dark, 172-square-foot abandoned jail cell that was entirely unfit for human habitation. It was from this unhygienic room, which severely worsened her asthma, that Bernadette walked out to gather firewood on February 11, 1858, and encountered the Blessed Mother.
As a fun side note, Bernadette had a brother named Jean-Marie. Being named Jean-Marie myself, I've always felt a humorous, extended-family connection to her; I totally get what it’s like to navigate life with a notorious sibling named, Jean-Marie!
But beyond family dynamics, Bernadette's story resonates with me on an academic and intellectual level. Because of her family's poverty, Bernadette was completely illiterate when the apparitions began. Yet, the Blessed Mother was entirely unbothered by this, explicitly telling her that she didn't need to write anything down. This deeply comforted me because it stands in stark contrast to the Marian apparition at Fatima, where the Blessed Mother explicitly commanded the children to learn to read and write.
Because my birthday is October 13th—the feast of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima—I grew up with a heightened awareness of that expectation. But reading didn't come easily to me. I am an extremely visual, spatial person, and as a child, I actually had to be sent to my own mother, who worked as a Chapter 1 Reading Teacher in Mobile, Alabama, just to master basic literacy.
That academic friction followed me into high school at McGill-Toolen in Mobile. Having transitioned from a public school system with a standard 10-point grading scale to a Catholic school operating on a strict 8-point scale, I found it incredibly frustrating to see a 90 on a test marked as a B. I vividly remember studying physics with friends when one of their mothers unsympathetically demanded to know why we "only" had B's when extra credit was available, telling us we should be shooting for a 105. A small piece of me died that day, and for a long time, I mistakenly assumed all Catholics were just relentlessly demanding. Learning that Bernadette was embraced in her illiteracy—before eventually learning to read and write with the Sisters of Charity—was incredibly healing for me.
Ultimately, literacy is about so much more than grades or meeting expectations; it is the ultimate tool for developing empathy. When you read, you are independently taking in information and processing it intellectually, emotionally, and somatically. As we mark National Child Awareness Month and grapple with how to stop childhood bullying, the answer might lie right here. By teaching children to read deeply, we teach them to understand the internal lives of others—allowing them to experience the exact same mystical experience that is driving The Child of The World Series—seeing the face of Christ in another person.
Posted on: September 5, 2026