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Have you ever wondered about the history behind the new St. Benedict statue in Schilling Square? Believe it or not, it took years of planning and numerous designs before the statue actu- ally came to a reality. It started with Tim Molak and his vision for a statue on campus. After vis-
iting De La Salle High School in Concord, he noticed a beautiful bronze statue of St. John Baptist 21 de la Salle and inquired where they had it made. He thought Priory should have its own statue,
one of the founder of our tradition, St. Benedict. After some consultation with Father Martin, it was decided that the statue would be based on a statue of St. Benedict at St. Anselm College. While a group of Priory faculty and staff attended the BLSS Conference at St. Anselm, the group took photos of the St. Benedict statue from every angle.
Those photos were sent to the statue company with a few instructions for modifications such as removing the cowl on the habit and making St. Benedict look younger. The statue slowly began taking shape with emails sent back and forth between the company and Father Martin. Finally, the drawings were sent to China where a clay statue was created. The clay statue was photographed and sent to Father Martin who continued to make slight tweaks and edits. The nose, eyes and facial hair were changed by Father Martin, who actually made pen marks on the photo and emailed the marked up photos to the company.
The statue was then bronzed and shipped to the Priory, where it arrived on July 16, 2015. The statue was moved to five different locations on campus before finding its forever home in the center of Schilling Square.
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The clay statue was photographed and sent to Father Martin who continued to make slight tweaks and edits.
1. Father Martin with the original St. Benedict statue at St. Anselm. 2. The original facial design of the St. Benedict statue.
3. Father Martin etched facial hair and modified the eyes.
4. The nose and eyebrows were also changed.
The St. Benedict Statue
How It Came About
ON CAMPUS