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!