Charity announces plans for Marian statue in London

Published: 2008-05-01

LONDON (CNS) -- A charity has announced plans to erect a statue of Mary in London in memory of the medieval Catholic shrines destroyed in the Reformation. The work will be called "Mary Most Holy" and will stand on land once owned by St. Thomas More, alongside the Thames River at Chelsea. St. Thomas was the lord chancellor of England and was beheaded in 1535. It has been commissioned by the Art and Reconciliation Trust, a charity set up to promote awareness of the negative effects iconoclasm has on culture; the work will cost approximately $2.5 million. The sculptor who will make the statue is Paul Day, whose previous work includes a memorial of the Battle of Britain in central London. The proposed work, a bronze triptych on a granite plinth, will feature a statue of Mary holding up the child Jesus against the backdrop of ruins. Two side panels show reformers beheading the statues of saints and destroying a crucifix.

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