Caring for Our Blessed Mother Statue

Caring for ourBlessed Mother Statue

AFTER 57 YEARS of watching over the Mount St. Mary’s community with her loving gaze, outstretched hands and motherly heart, our beloved 26-foot statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary needed us to take care of her so she would be there for future generations. This is the story of the landmark statue’s sabbatical year in which we both felt her absence and her presence every day.

May 2021

Thanks to the generosity of donors, the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes began the process to regild the beloved statue. Engineers discovered that the statue’s interior structural steel supports had been corroded by age and weather and needed to be refurbished. Vice President for Business and Finance Bill Davies, along with Todd Otis and Channing Kern of the university’s physical plant team, quickly put together a team of experts to devise a plan.

December 2021

National Shrine Grotto Director Dawn Walsh and Vice President for University Advancement Robert Brennan, C'85, visited the facility to check on the progress of the project. In removing the deteriorated armature and blast cleaning the statue, the restoration experts discovered multiple micro surface fractures in the bronze casting that have to be repaired to ensure that rain would not continue to seep in and damage the supports. (Each piece of blue tape marks these small surface cracks.) This painstaking process slowed the restoration as did supply chain issues in obtaining the stainless steel for the new armature.

July 2021

ADTEK Engineers, Inc. and Big Hook Crane and Rigging carefully removed the statue from Pangborn Campanile and took her to a Virginia facility owned by ADTEK for refurbishment. Over the year-long project, nine experts worked on restoring the statue.

Show Your Support

Due to the severity of the damage and length of the project, the statue’s refurbishment has been considerably more costly than anticipated. Prayers and financial contributions continue to be appreciated. To make a gift online, visit msmary.edu/ restoremary.

July 25, 2022

Robert Marshall of R. Alden Marshall & Associates and his team began to apply about 10,000 three-inch squares of gold leaf to the statue. The heavyweight 23.75K gold came from Italy, where the statue was cast in 1964.

August 23, 2022

On the second day of the Fall 2022 semester, the university community gathered to celebrate Our Blessed Mother’s return and to bless the statue, lovingly referred to by students as Mom. Our Lady will long continue to fulfill her purpose on Mary’s Mountain.

July 20, 2022

The statue returned to her perch atop the campanile but was scaffolded so that the originally planned gilding work could be done. In preparation for this day, the campanile’s masonry was repointed and internal voids were filled.

August 6, 2022

Upon completion of the project, the scaffolding was removed. The landmark statue is once again visible, shining more brightly than ever in the summer sun and radiating goodness and hope over campus.