Saints Dance in Potrero Hill

The architecture of Saint Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, 500 De Haro Street, blends Russian Orthodox, Japanese Shinto, and Craftsman styles. Long lines of people can be seen at the House of Worship on Saturdays, when Food Pantry volunteers distribute groceries to hundreds of families as part of one of San Francisco’s largest independent nutrition assistance programs. Morning Prayer is offered Monday through Friday, with Sunday services. The church hosts a Buddhist group on the first Friday of each month. 

Inside, circling the rotunda is a monumental mural of ninety larger-than-life dancing saints, led by a twelve-foot-tall Christ, an icon in jewel-like colors enhanced with gold-leaf. Some of the twirling saints are traditional – St. Teresa and St. Francis – others are a surprise:  Malcom X, Anne Frank, Margaret Mead, Lady Godiva, Queen Elizabeth I, Sojourner Truth, Shakespeare and Bacchus. During church services, as St. Gregory’s congregation dances around the rotunda’s altar, “…the saints dance above, proclaiming a sweeping, universal vision of God shining through human life”.

St. Gregory of Nyssa was a fourth century bishop in what’s now Turkey. Many of his contemporaries believed that dancing, and music in general, was dangerously sensual, but St. Gregory included rhythmic motion in worship services.

“Once there was a time when the whole rational creation formed a single dancing chorus looking upward to the one leader of this dance,” he wrote. “And the harmony of motion that they learned from his law found its way into their dancing.” 

Artist Mark Dukes painted the mural over ten years, completing it in 2009. Dukes is a deacon of St. John Coltrane African Orthodox Church, where his artwork can also be seen. Dukes first came to St. Gregory’s through work at their soup kitchen; eventually church space became his studio. 

“There is a universal consensus of religious ideals, Dukes said. “Maybe not religious practice, but religious ideals. Like humility. Like peace. Like hope. That’s what (the mural) is about. It’s about love. God is love.” 

His most recent work is edgier, created under the name Mark Doox: markdoox.com.

^{Saints, left to right, in each mural: 
Top: Miriam, Origen, Malcom X, Queen Elizabeth I, Iqbal Masih, Teresa of Avila
Center: Nellie & Dorothy Lincoln, Sorghoqtani, Paulos Mar Gregorios, William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Norman Perrin, Mary Magdalene, Patrick of Ireland
Bottom: Hypatia, Aelred of Rievaulx, Charles Wesley, Julia Morgan, Lady Godiva with horse, Janani Luwum}

^{The View’s history feature is sponsored by Rickshaw Bagworks.}