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Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Most Catholic churches reserve a special place for an image of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, the greatest of the saints. “All ages to come will call me
blessed,” Mary says in Luke’s gospel (Luke 1:48). Catholic art over two
millennia has produced many styles of representation and many titles for
Mary, the mother of Jesus, since she was acclaimed as “God-bearer” or
“Mother of God” by the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD.
Our statue, though modern in creation, is done is the very ancient style
of an enthroned Mother serving in turn as a throne for her Son. It is a
pose called the “Seat of Wisdom,” for Mary is the living Throne of divine
Wisdom, of the Father’s eternal Word, Jesus, whom she is presenting to the
world. Note the maturity of the Christ Child. Both Mary and Jesus look
straight out at the observer, and the Child gestures toward a book (the
gospel….the Word of God). This is a style of art contrasting sharply with
the humanistic Madonna and playful Christ Child of the Italian
Renaissance.
Seat of Wisdom was a pose very prominent in art of the fourth, fifth and
sixth centuries. Our carved wood statue was executed in 1968 by Ferdinando
Stuflesser in Bolzano, Italy, and restored in 2000.
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