OUR LADY

Our Lady of Guadalupe, also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe, is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a venerated image enshrined within the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. It is hardly a coincidence that in 1945, the year that World War II ended, Pope Pius XII looked at the suffering, fragmented world and declared Our Lady of Guadalupe patroness of the Americas.--Wikipedia
If you get a chance, take a minute to look up the story of Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe on the internet. You'll be inspired! http://www.catholic.org/about/guadalupe.php

Our Lady of Guadalupe has always been an important part of the customs and celebrations of the St. Francis de Sales Hispanic community, especially on her feast day which is December 12.

It seemed most appropriate to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe within our new devotional area.  Kathie Murray took the lead on this and worked with many people from the Hispanic community to get it just right. Our statue was custom ordered from Italy and hand carved of wood.  It was delivered as bare wood and needed to be painted.  We hired Conrad Schmitt studios and David, one of our favorite artists, to do the work.

Kathie offered several meetings with the Hispanic group to review what was important with the design of the area so that it would match their traditions. She then organized a group to "visit" the statue in Milwaukee at the studio.  The group had input into the colors and design of statue which is rich in symbolism.  There will be more details on this in our next blog, but even the colors are significant so we had several "consultants" from the Hispanic group who helped to ensure that the statue would be exactly right. 

We are very happy to have worked collaboratively with our Hispanic friends on Project 2017  to help to honor their religious history as well as to enrich our knowledge. More about "Our Lady" and her symbols will be coming soon in our next blog!

THE FENNIMORE COINCIDENCE

Early on in the renovation process, a sub team from the Project 2017 committee decided to research other restorations by actually going to visit other churches.   Why?  We had 3 presentations from 3 different design firms and needed to make a decision.  They were checking quality, form, materials and talking to the pastors that had worked with the different vendors.  It was also a great opportunity to gather ideas for our own project.  We knew this would be valuable research, but to our surprise a few extra things came out of this adventure!

One we called the "Fennimore Coincidence".  Katie Alder came across a church located in Fennimore, Wisconsin while doing internet research that had strikingly similar architecture to St. Francis de Sales.  Called St. Mary's, the renovation there was completed in 2013 by Conrad Schmitt Studios and it was really interesting to see some of the things that they had done. Because it was a recent renovation, the people that were involved were still there and were able to tell our group what worked and what didn't work.  Our team traveled up there (a 2.5 hour drive!) and talked to the staff and volunteers involved in the project.  They told of their experiences with the design work and material choices.

No this is not SFDS but St. Mary's in Fennimore, Wisconsin!

Needless to say, it was really exciting to actually see a similar renovation and not just a rendering on a piece of paper.  We were very encouraged at that point that our project could actually happen and that it would be stunning.  It really helped to validate and solidify our vision.  This was a turning point for our group and we took it as a sign that we were definitely on the right track!

St. Peter's in Volo, St. Patrick's in McHenry, St. Hyacinth in Chicago, St. Gregory the Great in Chicago, St. Raphael the Archangel in Antioch, and St. Josephat in Milwaukee were just some of the other churches that this group took the time to visit.  

The other major thing that came out of these "field trips" was the realization that many churches had a quiet devotional area where people could go to pray.  This was on our "wish" list, and when we decided to take out the glass doors to open up the back of the church, a new space for a shrine became apparent. But that's another chapter!  Check our next blog for the story of our beautiful "Our Lady of Guadalupe" shrine.

It's been said before but it's worth repeating to again say that this could not have happened so efficiently and beautifully without the passion, dedication, and talent of the Project 2017 committee! Thank you!