Story and photos courtesy of St. Peter Catholic Church, Greenville, NC.
On the Second Sunday of Lent, Leo Trujillo, a wood carver and iconographer, guided the parishioners of St. Peter through the process of how he develops his various projects and icons. He began by describing his own personal journey to show how the Lord uses everything in one's life to prepare them for where they are now.
Leo returned to carving at the request of a family member after a hiatus to make a pablo reminiscent of his native New Mexico. The turn into icon work came when Father Ian VanHeusen asked him to do some work for the ECU Newman Center. This led Leo to a new area to express his skills, and to date he now has religious work in Greenville at St. Peter, ECU Newman, and John Paul II Catholic High School. His works have also traveled across the country with Our Lady of Guadalupe in Cincinnati.
The greatest lesson he gave those in attendance was not how to transform wood into sacred art. It was truly how to place our own gifts at the service of the Gospels. The Catholic Church thrives from people such as Leo, who daily place their talents at the service of Christ.
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