Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road.

The crowds preceding him and those following kept crying out and saying:

“Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest.”

And when he entered Jerusalem the whole city was shaken and asked, “Who is this?”11And the crowds replied, “This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee.” ~Mt 21:8-11

Image Credit: Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem (1820) by Benjamin Joseph Haydon (d. 1846), based on the story of Palm Sunday (Matt 21; Mark 11; Luke 19; and John 12).

The three men on the far right are well-known historical characters: the poet William Wordsworth bows his head in profound reverence; Sir Isaac Newton, the astronomer, regards Christ with a calm, unimpassioned serenity; while Voltaire’s sneering expression is the opposite of the two. The poet John Keats stands behind Wordsworth.

Brought to the United States in 1831, the painting was later given by Archbishop James Wood of Philadelphia to Archbishop John Purcell of Cincinnati, who placed it in the cathedral. Archbishop William Elder of Cincinnati loaned it to the Cincinnati Art Museum until the completion of the seminary in Norwood. In 1962, Archbishop Karl Alter had the painting placed in the atrium of the Athenaeum where it now resides.