We recently had some bad news when the Pieta (the statue of Mary holding Christ when he is brought down from the cross) took a tumble from its wooden plinth and was very badly damaged (see photos below)

As you can imagine we were devastated at the extent of the damage and feared we wouldn’t find the expertise locally to have it repaired or to pay for such a repair.

After a number of weeks had passed, Dennis O’Connor and his wife Doreen, who come into St Marie’s on a regular basis, made the very generous offer to pay for the repair. What followed was some extensive research to try and source a reputable statue repairer and eventually we found a company who agreed to undertake the work. They asked whether we would like the Pieta to be restored to its original colours as we know it was repainted for the Centenary Celebrations of St Marie’s in the mid 1960’s and it was agreed we should do that.

The company have started the work and we expect to have the Pieta back in its place for our next St Marie’s Heritage Group event, which we hope will be in June.

St Marie’s Heritage Group would like to thank Dennis and Doreen for their amazing generosity.