A bridge to the Divine: a new symbol of faith arrives in Box Hill North

For the first time in its 65-year history, the church of Box Hill North has a statue of its patroness, St Clare. The work, commissioned by the parish, was blessed by Bishop Les Tomlinson on Sunday 11 August, the feast of St Clare.

For parishioners, the unveiling of the statue was akin to a homecoming, with many gathering around the statue after Mass to take pictures and pray with their patroness.

Damien Walker, from the Studio of Saint Philomena in Christchurch, New Zealand, was asked to craft the statue and accompanied it across the Tasman, presenting it to the parishioners at the feast day Mass. Assistant priest Fr James Baptist says it was a special moment for the parish. ‘It’s exciting for the whole parish to see something which will be here for years to come, and that will remind us of the part that St Clare plays in our parish community, leading us to Our Lord,’ he says.

An invitation to reflect

Clothed in the traditional brown habit of the Order of St Clare and holding a gilded crozier and monstrance, the intricately crafted statue is infused with a symbolism that Mr Walker explains is intended to draw people into the life of St Clare and her love of Christ and the Blessed Eucharist.

‘She isn’t leading us to St Clare; she’s leading us to Christ,’ Mr Walker says.

‘Every symbol should lead us back to Christ. The crozier is intentionally directed towards the tabernacle in the church, guiding our focus to its true centre. While we may be looking at her, she holds the crozier as a representation of her role as the foundress of the order. At the centre of the crook, the grapes symbolise the connection to the Eucharist, linking us back to the monstrance and the power of the Blessed Eucharist.’

For Fr Baptist, the placement of such rich symbolism within the church is an important opportunity to re-educate the community about the importance of sacred art in the Catholic faith.

‘Damien very kindly gave a talk on sacred art to some of our young people yesterday, and spoke about the beautiful, symbolic nature of sacred art, how it draws us in and leads us to look to the Divine, to Heaven, to the things of God. It is a very highly theological part of our Church and something which has been often missing and would be beautiful to reintroduce more widely,’ Fr Baptist says.

Sacred art rises from the rubble

It was out of this need to restore and renew sacred art that Mr Walker’s Studio of Saint Philomena was born. Following the Christchurch earthquakes in 2010 and 2011, Mr Walker was tasked by a local priest with the repair of a statue that had been all but destroyed in the disaster.

‘He brought around a box of 150 pieces of rubble, and it started from that. From there, tons and tons of statues came through. It was almost like a field hospital for sacred art,’ he says.

In the years since, the St Philomena Studio has restored or crafted almost 300 statues. With each new piece of sacred art, Mr Walker’s reputation has spread, earning him major commissions in New Zealand, Australia and the United States. He now works on a wide array of sacred art projects, from full church restorations and consulting for new church designs to altars, icons, mosaics and stained glass.

A Melbourne connection

Mr Walker’s dedication to creating sacred art, like the statue of St Clare, has led him on a mission to conserve the craft and materials of statue-making, which he found were quickly disappearing. The statue of St Clare itself is made from a mould he found in the Mattei Brothers collection, a library of Italian statue moulds that he acquired in 2019 from the late Joseph Giansiracusa, who for over 40 years operated the Sacred Art Studios in the Melbourne suburb of Preston.

With Mattei statues in almost every Catholic church in Melbourne, the character of the city’s sacred places is intrinsically connected to these moulds, and Mr Walker is proud that he could deliver a new statue that is both spiritually and historically connected to the community. ‘She’s marked with the Melbourne stamp, so truly a Melbourne statue for Melburnians,’ he says.

Speaking the same language through art

Following the statue’s blessing, it will be installed on the wall opposite an original Mattei statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which Mr Walker says will bring symmetry to the sanctuary and invite all to partake in the community’s faith and mission.

‘Sacred art is a great means to bridge the gap to the Divine. Even with different ethnic communities, you can speak the same language through sacred art,’ he says. ‘You may not all speak the same language, but you can all have the same mission.’