The modern day job description of a prophet can be summed up in four words: speak truth to power. In the weeks leading up to the American presidential election and the season of Advent, I will be featuring works from the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection, depicting prophets, old and new, and consider the theme of the artist as prophet. This wide-ranging series begins this week with a profile of Wilhelm Geyer, one of the great sacred artmakers of the 2Oth century. The life of this outstanding German painter of alterpieces and designer of stained glass windows hung in the balance in 1943, when he was arrested by the Nazi regime on suspicion of involvement in the White Rose anti-Fascist movement. He was released for lack of evidence. Geyer made no secret of his opposition to the brutal, totalitarian ideology of the Third Reich in works like Pictorial Thoughts on the Sunday Gospels, a portfolio from 1939-1940 of illustrations for the Roman Catholic lectionary, and in a suite of lithographs of the Passion of Christ now on view in his profile page in the Sacred Artists section. (John Kohan)