Update: Mary, Mother of Fairest Love - Completed Statue Blessed by the Prelate in Carrara, Italy
On a warm, clear morning in Florence, Italy, just days after St. Josemaría’s feast day, some members of the Fairest Love board of directors and a few others climbed into a van headed for Carrara, the famed source of premium quality Italian marble. The hour-long ride through the Tuscan countryside was peaceful and pastoral. We drove through valleys dotted with haystacks and stucco farmhouses sporting green shutters and red tile roofs, surrounded by rolling hills heavily forested with stone pine and cypress. Our view was punctuated intermittently by the square stone towers so common in Tuscany. The highway even bisected a majestic Roman aqueduct! The hills slowly gave way to sharp, craggy mountains, with an occasional village perched at the foot of the mountains, its balconies festooned with baskets of geraniums.
As we approached Carrara, we could see where the mountain faces had been hewn for marble, leaving stark white cliffs, crisscrossed with mining tracks. The marble in Carrara has been quarried since the early second century BC, starting with the Romans. Several antiquities in Rome were built with Carrara marble, including the Pantheon and Trajan’s Column. Carrara is known for the superior white and blue-gray marble quarried there, prized from Roman times up to this day. Michelangelo even used Carrara marble for some of his sculptures.
Our trek to Carrara was for a joyous occasion – the blessing of the Fairest Love statue. Sculptor Cody Swanson had worked here, in the Carrara workshop, at the base of the mountain that produced the marble, for over a year, chiseling, shaping, and refining the statue that stood before us now. The statue is resplendent, a glorious celebration of motherhood and love.
The Prelate of Opus Dei, Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz, traveled from Rome to bless the statue. In his blessing, he said that we know Mary is the Mother of God. And since God is Love, it follows that Mary is the Mother of Love. He reminded us that St. Josemaría’s vision was to help families through spreading and deepening the devotion to Mary, Mother of Fairest Love. Now the Fairest Love statue can act as a locus for intercession for families, whatever their needs may be. We concluded the event by singing the Salve Regina in front of the statue, marking the first official time that a group had gathered to pray before it.
The blessing felt like a joyous family celebration, in part because Cody, his wife, Alina, and their five children were there with us. Cody presented Msgr. Ocáriz with the preliminary drawing of the Fairest Love statue, and the Prelate gave everyone rosaries made from stone. He also handed out bags of candy for the children, which they received with giggles and smiles.
We left Carrara with full hearts, grateful for the all the work that has been done so far and looking forward to welcoming Our Mother of Fairest Love to her new home in the United States. The statue will first reside at St. Mary of the Angels Church in Chicago, until her permanent home is California is ready.
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