Icons of Blesseds

What does "Blessed" mean?

A blessed is someone the Church has beatified — the step before canonisation. Beatification means the Church has recognised that this person lived a life of heroic virtue or died for the faith, and permits public veneration in a limited way. Many blesseds are never canonised, and some of the most loved figures of modern Catholicism are blesseds.

The blesseds in this collection

The Blessed Ulma Family — Józef, Wiktoria and their seven children, murdered in 1944 for sheltering their Jewish neighbours, and beatified together in 2023; Blessed Carlo Acutis, the young computer enthusiast who catalogued eucharistic miracles and died in 2006; Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko, the priest murdered by the communist security service in 1984; Blessed Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, Primate of Poland; Blessed Michał Kozal and Blessed Karolina Kózka; Blessed Michael Sopoćko, the confessor of St. Faustina; Blessed Edmund Bojanowski and Blessed Bernardyna Maria Jabłońska; Blessed Bartolo Longo, founder of the sanctuary of Pompeii; and Blessed Laura Vicuña, Blessed Dina Bélanger, Blessed Francisco Palau and Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos.

A note on beatification and canonisation

Devotion to the blesseds is a living part of Catholic practice, especially in Poland and in the countries that suffered under totalitarian regimes in the twentieth century. Many of these blesseds are contemporaries — people who lived, worked and died within living memory.

Icons of the blesseds

Each icon is printed on alder wood and finished by hand with gold leaf. If you are looking for a blessed who is not yet in our collection, write to us — we can prepare an icon to order.

Learn more: guides and articles

• Icons of Blesseds: Carlo Acutis, the Ulma Family and More
• Saint Symbols: How to Recognize Saints in Icons