Why Marilyn Monroe is seen as an angel in a Protestant church

Hollywood diva Marilyn Monroe was once one of the most photographed women in the world. What many people don't know is that she can be admired in the ceiling painting of a Rhön village church. We reveal how this came about decades ago - and what the church has to say about it today.

In the Protestant Church in Tann-Habel, Hollywood diva Marilyn Monroe, among others, was immortalised as an angel in a ceiling painting. 

Marilyn Monroe became world famous as an actress and sex symbol. Images of her have burned themselves into the collective memory - probably especially in the male world. Photographs of the lascivious blonde became icons of pop culture. Sometimes you come across images of her where you wouldn't expect it at all: in a Hessian church.

In a village church in the Rhön region, one angel of a ceiling painting has Marilyn Monroe's head on it. The blonde curly cut and Monroe's delicate facial shape are easily recognisable. However, there is no sign of a pout or a curvy female body. The Monroe angel with the grey wings from her back follows her companions in the white sea of clouds.

Marilyn Monroe, whose real name was Norma Jeane Baker, is now 60 years dead. The American actress became famous for films such as "Blondes Prefer" and "Some Like It Hot". She became a world star in the 1950s. In her time, she was one of the most famous and most photographed women in the world. She died of a drug overdose (barbiturates) on the night of 4 to 5 August 1962 and lived to be only 36 years old.

Reimund Romeis always has to smile when he looks up at the ceiling of the Protestant church in the Habel district of Tann (Fulda). He was a lay churchwarden in the small town for over 30 years and he knows how the Hollywood diva came to be on the ceiling of the church.

Children's portraits for angel faces

Romeis reports that in 1963 and 1964 the church was renovated. A church painter was commissioned to decorate a section of the ceiling with angels. He painted the bodies including the wings without any specific models. But for the faces, the idea arose to use portraits of children from the village.

Photographs were brought to the church painter. "And in the process, a couple of boys played a prank," Romeis reports. They planted a picture of Marilyn Monroe on the church artist. Whether he unknowingly captured her on the ceiling of the church or whether he recognised her and immortalised her anyway is not known. The priest was on holiday at the time - and it happened, as Romeis reports.

"That's something special"

Romeis' wife Ingrid is also among the angels. Her photograph also served as a model for an angel's face. "That's quite something," she said even today, many decades later. "Who else can be seen on the ceiling of a church. And then as an angel, too."

For whatever reason, there is still a Hollywood diva in the church: Near the ceiling painting, Jane Russell is pictured holding a fanfare trumpet. Russell (1921-2011) was also a US actress and singer who was considered a sex symbol in the 1940s and 1950s.

The actress-beauties immortalised in the church do not lead to tourists flocking to the place of worship, as Konrad Kirchner of the Tanner Culture and History Association says. But a visit to the baroque church, built between 1782 and 1785, is definitely worthwhile - not least because of the special paintings.

Another angel based on a prominent model: US actress Jane Russell can also be seen as an angel in the church. 

The church takes it all in its stride

The church takes it all with humour. A spokeswoman for the Protestant Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck (EKKW) told the hr when asked: "Angels are God's messengers: they show people that God is with them. If churchgoers in the village church of Habel now experience God's presence through an angel stylised as Marilyn Monroe, then that is fine with us. We therefore do not see the prank as blasphemous or disreputable, but quite relaxed."

The EKKW further explained, "This is also about Christian images of hope: The living are transformed and imperishable. In this respect, a Hollywood icon and the Christian message also go together."

Source with close up photographs