Last month, Liturgical Designer Rolf Rohn completed the installation of a new white Carrara marble corpus for the Carmelite Monastery of Saint Therese of Lisieux in Loretto, PA. Over the past forty years, Rolf has diligently worked with the cloistered nuns to preserve their aging plaster corpus, significantly slowing its deterioration. When it came time to replace the statue, he designed the new image to faithfully replicate the original, fitting it to an existing granite cross in their courtyard.
Rolf crafted a 6-foot reproduction of the 5-foot Christ, ensuring it better complemented the scale of the exterior cross and accurately represented adult proportions. It was paramount to the sisters that the new likeness retained the same features as its predecessor. Under Rolf's meticulous supervision, a skilled Italian artisan painstakingly recreated the details on a larger scale.
After the new figure was completed and safely transported overseas, Rolf's team delicately removed the protective layer of Plaster of Paris using hot water. They also carefully cleaned the existing cross before securely hanging the statue with new brackets and pins to support its increased weight and size. Finally, they respectfully disassembled the original corpus and laid it to rest in the cemetery.
The installation took place the week following the sisters' ten-day silent retreat. Mother John of the Cross proclaimed it was "a wonderful conclusion to our retreat."
Comments
Post a Comment