The Art of Calligraphy

By Barbara Adams

The Estacada News, Nov 14, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Barbara Adams / Estacada News

Calligrapher and St. Aloysius parish priest Fr. Robert Palladino will be at the Spiral Gallery Saturday, Nov. 18, to teach a beginning calligraphy class. He has created many of the signs at St. Aloysius, including the one he’s standing next to.

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When Fr. Robert Palladino began saying mass at St. Aloysius in 1996, he was just filling in while Fr. Dave Clark studied archeology in London. Ten years, and more than 1,000 masses, later, Fr. Palladino is preparing to retire. But before he does, he has a few more gifts to offer to the Estacada community.

On Saturday, Nov. 18, he will share his knowledge and expertise during a two hour beginning calligraphy class held at the Spiral Gallery Artist Co-op, 341 South Broadway. This will be the first of a series of community classes this fall offered as a thank-you to patrons and the community that has supported the gallery over the years.

Fr. Palladino, 74, began learning the art of calligraphy during his 18 years as a Trappist monk in New Mexico. “That was where I learned how to use the broad pen,” he said. His teacher was Fr. Maurice. “We had to observe silence–so I only got permission to speak to him like once a year for a lesson. I pretty much learned on my own.”

He grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a half mile from the Cathedral of Santa Fe, which his grandfather built. His father was a choir member there, and his mother was the organist. He joined the Trappist Abbey when he was 17, “just fresh out of high school,” he said.

His years at the abbey were filled with prayer, reflection, reading and writing and, as a choir monk, Latin chants. “It was a wonderful life. I loved the chant. We were singing chants that had been sung since the ninth century. We had music for practically every day of the year,” Palladino said.

It was also a time to practice and put to good use his love of calligraphy. “A silent monastery always needs signs, for the sacristy, dormitory, all kinds of things,” he said. When his teacher, Fr. Maurice, became ill and was no longer able to create the signs, Fr. Palladino took over the duties.

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