Landmark Statue to Return This Summer

BY SUMMER’S END, the iconic statue of Our Blessed Mother is expected to be fully restored so that she can return to her mountain home, where she will shine brightly for decades to come. The 26-foot gold-leafed statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary served as a brightly shining beacon of faith and hope to the university community for 57 years before she was taken down last summer for refurbishment. One year later, she will return to her perch atop the Pangborn Memorial Campanile at the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Originally commissioned in 1964 from the noted Italian sculptor Marcello Tommasi, the sculpture was cast from a full-size plaster model in Pietresanta, Italy, and was transported to Baltimore by boat and then to Emmitsburg by truck. At the time of the dedication of the Pangborn Memorial Campanile on May 1, 1964, the statue was believed to be the largest ever imported to the United States in a single piece. The De Ranieri Studios of Detroit supervised the work in Italy and in the U.S. The Pangborn Foundation and its chairman, Thomas W. Pangborn, of Hagerstown, Maryland, an industrialist and philanthropist, donated the statue.

In 2021, when contractors put scaffolding in place to regild the iconic statue, they discovered that many years of exposure to rain, wind and sun had resulted in corrosion that had eaten away at the statue’s interior steel support system. In July 2021, the statue was removed for repair by Big Hook Crane of Union Bridge, Maryland, and transported to a facility in Fairfax, Virginia, owned by ADTEK Engineers of Frederick. While the work on the statue is being completed in Virginia, contractors in Emmitsburg are repairing the mortar base for the statue’s homecoming.

The statue’s yearlong refurbishment is nearly complete. The new stainless-steel armature, the support inside Our Blessed Mother’s iconic statue, has been put in place and soon the much-anticipated regilding process will begin. A festival is being planned for the beloved statue’s return.

Big Hook Crane staff gently removed the statue last July

VP for University Advancement Bob Brennan and Grotto Director Dawn Walsh on a visit to the Virginia Facility

The new stainless steel armature in place

Support the Restoration

Pray for this project, learn more and give at msmary.edu/restoremary