Fra Angelico (c. 1385 – February 18, 1455), Fra Angelico was beatified on October 3, 1982 by Pope John Paul II and in 1984 declared him patron of Catholic artists.
Angelico was given the epithet "Blessed Angelico", because of the perfect integrity of his life and the almost divine beauty of the images he painted, to a superlative extent those of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Remarkably Fra Angelico is among those privileged few who have been beatified without a miracle.
"We, with sound knowledge, bearing in mind the considerable merits in the Church of Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, exclusively for the good of souls, of Our own initiative and with Our apostolic authority, concede as a sign of special grace that his birthday, with the title of "Blessed" in the Liturgy of the Hours and in the Eucharist may be celebrated, with an obligatory degree of remembrance, in the basilica of S. Maria sopra Minerva, where his body is buried, and with a facultative degree of remembrance throughout the Order of Preaching Friars." - Pope John Paul II
