SSM Health will be unveiling its new statue, the Stella Maris, at a private unveiling ceremony Friday in Jefferson City, but officials welcome the public to come and see it and take a tour of the campus at the new St. Mary's hospital open house on Nov. 1 and 2.
The art piece sets atop a large red travertine stone, in the center of a fountain that is surrounded by stone benches and landscaped gardens. It was carved from Carrara marble that was harvested from the side of a mountain in Carrara, Italy.
Beverly Stafford, director of the St. Mary's Foundation, has taken two trips to Italy to complete the 1 1/2-year project of bringing Stella home.
"To create this project, a marble statue of this magnitude and nature is quite a process," Stafford said. "For the first visit, the objectives were really around selecting the stone and starting to plan for logistics of creation and shipment, and also to sign off on the artistic design. The second trip was to actually go over and inspect the statue. Part of that visit was actually to finish the design and carving of the base as well as the contract with the global shipping company."
The artist who designed the statue, Sabra Eagan, died from ALS in May 2013, before the first trip to Italy the following June. One of Stafford's goals for her trips was to make sure the statue was created as closely as possible to the way Eagan envisioned it, she said.
The sculptor who constructed the statue from Eagan's design was Franco Cervietti, of Pletrasanta, Italy. Cervietti's family has been in the sculpting business for multiple generations; he and his bothers are now the head of the family and the artisans who run the business. Together, they have worked all over the world, but most notably for the Vatican.
The statue was blessed by Pope Francis. This papal blessing also served to bless the gardens and grounds surrounding the statue, as well as the people who visit them, Stafford said. The grounds will also have a plaque with a memorare prayer etched into it. Memorare prayers are addressed to the Virgin Mary asking for her assistance and grace.
The statue was partially paid for by donations that started coming in during 2005. The names of the donors will be released at the private unveiling ceremony, but the amount they gave and the amount that the hospital spent on the statue will not be released, Stafford said.
See also: