Growing up in West Virginia, artist Christopher Santer was always drawing something.
“I could see how to translate 3D into 2D pretty early,” he said. “My earliest interest in art was drawing buildings and bridges, and that interest has remained my whole life.”
As a professional artist and a Catholic high school art teacher, he still does landscapes and architecture, but he is most sought after for his sacred artwork.
“The Magnificat,” one of Santer’s earliest commissions, greets visitors to Catholic United Financial’s St. Cloud branch office as part of CUF’s sponsorship of the Diocese of St. Cloud’s “Jubilee Passport: Pilgrims of Hope” project. The painting depicts Mary holding up her infant son.
CUF partnered with the Diocese of St. Cloud to sponsor the passport project, and during the Jubilee Year, Catholics are encouraged to visit the sites listed in the passport, including Catholic United Financial’s downtown St. Cloud office.
“We are getting towards the end of the 2025 Jubilee Year and the artwork that is displayed at our St. Cloud branch is truly a gift to everyone that has an opportunity to view it,” said Emily Ripplinger, St. Cloud branch manager. “We have had so many members compliment us on the addition of the painting in our branch and tell their family and friends about it. We have had some very meaningful conversations with our members and their friends and family.” CUF’s director of mission engagement, Nate Lamusga, was instrumental in bringing “The Magnificat” to the St. Cloud office.
He has been a fan of Santer’s art for along time and knows him personally. “When [we were] exploring how to participate in the Jubilee Passport project, one of our first ideas was to include an installation by a local Catholic artist,” Lamusga said. “As it happened, the very day we discussed it at work, Christopher sat down next to me at a Catholic middle school basketball game where our daughters were playing each other. I took that as a clear sign that we were meant to collaborate on this.”
When it was first brought up to him, Santer said that “The Magnificat” was the only original piece that he had available — and it turned out to be a perfect fit for the Jubilee Passport project.
“It’s a powerful image for pilgrims to reflect on as they renew their faith and hope in God,” Lamusga said. “Personally, I’m drawn to the joy on Mary’s face — it reflects her humility and her willingness to embrace God’s plan, which becomes a source of deep, authentic joy. It reminds me that God wants that same joy for each of us, and that’s a hope-filled message worth sharing.”
“The Magnificat” was originally commissioned for the maternity ward of St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital in Parkersburg, West Virginia, Santer’s hometown. His grandfather was a doctor and delivered more than 11,000 babies there before he retired in 1978.
“I have a very special connection to the hospital where my grandfather worked and also where my own father would spend most of his career as a cardiologist,” Santer said. “I wanted to portray Mary in complete joy with her infant son, and I also love to portray Jesus as an infant in his most vulnerable and dependent state, in the same place that we all enter the world.”
The painting was in the maternity ward for 20 years until the hospital closed, Santer said, which made it possible for him to re-acquire it and, in turn, make it available for this project.
Jolene Sis, a member of St. Joseph Parish in Waite Park, visited the Catholic United branch with four of her children to view the painting. Like Lamusga, she was struck by the joy that radiates from Mary’s face and noted that the realistic skin tones and her tender smile give the image a sense of warmth and happiness.
Her son Isaac, 11, was drawn to the baby’s eyes. “He looks very alert,” he said.
Santer was raised Catholic but describes a real conversion and deepening of his faith at age 22. He had just graduated from the University of Dayton and was attending graduate school at Ohio University.
“It really started me on a path of wanting more and seeking God more over the next few years,” he said.
It was during graduate school, in the midst of his conversion, that he was asked to attempt his first sacred art piece, “Christ with Children,” a 3-by-5-foot painting for the cry room at his home parish, St. Margaret Mary in Parkersburg. That opened the door to future commissions, including “The Good Shepherd” for Parkersburg Catholic High School in 1998 and “The Magnificat” in 1999.
After earning a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting, he felt called to a year of service with NET Ministries — a West St. Paul-based organization that equips young Catholics to travel the country on volunteer retreat teams — and that’s eventually what drew him to Minnesota, where he now lives and works.
“I was five years into real conversion in my life and wanted to give a year of volunteer work,” he said. “I had built houses as a summer job. So, I was looking at maybe a year of doing Habitat for Humanity and I had a friend who had done that full time. But it was NET that pulled me in.”
After completing his volunteer year on a retreat team, Santer remained at NET for three years as a staff member.
During his time there, the organization commissioned a series of saint portraits. The 15 portraits, done in charcoal, are still displayed at the NET Center in West St. Paul. A similar series was also commissioned by The Saint Paul Seminary in St. Paul.
“I’ve done 140 saints now since 2008, starting with the seminary. They have probably 80 of them outside all the dorm rooms,” Santer said. “That started me on my saint series, and since then I’ve not only been commissioned by other people and other churches, but periodically, when when I feel like there’s a gap in my offerings, I [will] do one.”
He recently finished St. Margaret Mary — realizing that he hadn’t done a portrait of the patron of his home parish — and gifted it to them.
Santer, who teaches art at Providence Academy in Plymouth, is currently workingon a large commission for an addition to the chapel at the NET Center. The plans are still being finalized, but he says the project will include 24 saints.
Creating sacred art, Santer explains, demands deep research, prayer and reflection. He relies on the guidance of the Holy Spirit for inspiration.
“I want the saints I portray to come alive as real people,” he said. “Not stylized, but as if they are someone you could meet on the street.”
For those who encounter his work, the impact is profound, and the staff at CUF have seen it firsthand.
“’The Magnificat’ is truly a gift to everyone who has the opportunity to view it,” said Ripplinger. “I am personally moved by the painting, and it offers a way to experience a deeper connection to God through art.”
“Not everyone can bring their faith into the workplace,” she added, “so we have not taken that for granted.”