Thomas Masaryk is an artist, deacon, and hospital chaplain. He holds degrees in fine arts from the Fashion Institute of Technology and Queens College in New York and has apprenticed with sculptor Donald Miller and master Sicilian wood carver Frank Licitra.
Thomas’s work has been featured in individual and group exhibitions, as well as numerous publications in the United States and overseas. Throughout his career he has given professional seminars and demonstrations in the Connecticut, New York, Boston, and Philadelphia areas.
In 2008 Bishop William Lori ordained Thomas as a Permanent Deacon in the Diocese of Bridgeport (Connecticut). In 2015, Bishop Frank Caggiano appointed Deacon Tom as Spiritual Director for the English-speaking Cursillo movement, a lay evangelizing movement of the Catholic Church, in the Diocese of Bridgeport. He is the first deacon in the diocese to be appointed to this position.
Deacon Tom took a year sabbatical in 2014 to serve as a full-time hospital chaplain at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport. The experience impacted him profoundly, motivating him to seek an assignment outside the walls of a parish and to reevaluate his artwork. In 2016, Bishop Frank Caggiano granted him a transfer to the Shrine of St. Margaret, the official diocesan shrine of Bridgeport, where he has been overseeing the renovation of the shrine’s grounds and statues.
In this episode, Deacon Tom takes us through the varied stages of his vocations as an artist and ordained minister. We look at the relationship between creative and spiritual practices, the need to find new sacred stories through visual language, and how Deacon Tom uses guided retreats to “help others find the sacredness of what they do.” Deacon Tom also shares with us what people get wrong about Vincent van Gogh, and why he believes “everybody knows how to create an image in some way, shape, or form.”
