Tales of a Stone Pilgrim
Stories from the (public) sculpture world

 



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  Monday, April 05, 2004


I ran across the story of a wood pilgrim, rather than a stone pilgrim today.  She’s 46 inches tall, 40 lbs, and rides on airplanes seat-belted into her own seat.

She’s the statue of the virgin Mary that was carved in Portugal in 1947 and was designated by a bishop as a “pilgrim” statue. Originally, she was designated to recall to mind the apparition of the virgin at Fatima in 1917. Her official title is the “International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima”.

For the past ten years, a former lumberjack and his life from Michigan have been her keepers. And churches call him from all over the world to book her appearances.

On her travels, she may pass her twin, the second statue authorized to tour the world in 1947, byt the same sculptor.

In a radio address in 1951, Pope Pius XII referred to her when he said, "In 1946 we crowned Our Lady of Fatima as Queen of the world, and the next year, through her pilgrim image, She set forth as though to claim Her dominion, and the miracles She performs along the way are such that we can scarcely believe our eyes at what we are seeing."

Close-up of Our Lady of Fatima weeping (Photo from Visions of Jesus website)

But the statue may also cross paths with a statue of “Mary Help of Christians” that travels from Padua, Italy, also visiting churches around the world. There’s also an “Ecce Homo” statue that travels in the US.


11:13:27 AM    comment []


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