Story of the sculpture of Mary, Mother of the Divine Conception of the Trinity - Part I

When visiting the Marian Center of Aurora, one of the most special places to visit is the house of prayer where the first sculpture of the face of Mary, Mother of the Divine Conception of the Trinity, is preserved, both works requested by the Virgin Mary in Her Apparitions to the visionary Friar Elías del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús.

In the year 2008, our Divine Mother requested the construction of a simple house in the place where She appeared for the first time in a private apparition in the Community Fraternidad, and this small house was named “House of Adoration”. This is where the greatest number of spiritual exercises are carried out in the Marian Center.

During its construction, something happened that marked a before and after in the history of the Marian Center. In the year 2011, the Virgin Mary requested that Her Apparitions would become public (previously they were reserved to the members of the monastery and community residents), and during those days, She made one of Her aspirations known: the construction of the first sculpture that would represent the face with which She appeared, the face of the Mother of the Divine Conception of the Trinity.

“I have come to ask you to build the Divine Conception of the Trinity, the image and likeness of God, by means of the symbol of a sculpture. (…) I want to announce to you that the image will not be in the old pattern, but will be the symbol of My radiance, that descends from the Heavens to this place, and thus will consecrate it.”

Virgin Mary, August 18, 2011

Thus, began a challenge, which was carried out in several stages.

In the first place, the painter who had already painted the delicate image of Our Divine Mother according to the descriptions of the visionaries was contacted. From Spain, he promptly responded and arrived in the land of Aurora to help find a sculptor in Uruguay who could develop this work dedicated to the Divinity. In Salto, the closest city to the Marian Center, a sculptor very devoted to Mary was contacted, and even though he had never made any religious works, he accepted the challenge because he felt within that this work was much more than creating an image, it was a call from the Virgin Mary.

Having no experience in sculpting statues, the painter had to make several enquiries to recreate the design of the image that would be used as the foundation for the sculpting to begin.

According to the testimony of the visionaries, in August 2007, the image carried within a lot of symbolism which had to be carefully represented:

“The Blessed Virgin was holding in Her hands a rosary of 72 beads which, in its end, had a silver cross with four equal sides, as a symbol of the Cross of the New Humanity.

She was wearing a pink tunic and a green mantle, very light and almost transparent, representing the spiritual, soul and inner healing for all souls. Her feet were resting on a half moon and seven roses.

The moon represents the birth of a new time and the roses symbolize the concretion of a new planetary cycle. On Her head there was a crown of twelve golden stars and from the third star it was seen the word “MIRNA HE” which means “Divine Trinity”.”

While the work was being done, several members of the Community came everyday to pray in the place where the image was being sculpted and thus, accompanied by prayer and the love that was placed in the work, the sculptor was able to model the sculpture in clay based on the design, work that he carried out in a simple and humble way in the garage of his home.

One of the greater difficulties was to recreate the back of the sculpture. “From behind we did not know how it looked because She always appeared from the front. Therefore, the visionaries had to be consulted and, little by little, the back was gradually created”, said the Sister of the Grace Mercy Order who was in charge of the works in the Marian Center at the time.

After three months of work, when the sculpture was finished together with the cloud, the half moon and the roses which were also part of Her face, the mold was made to recreate it in a more resistant material.

The white plaster sculpture was now ready for the next challenge: to color her face as She had appeared since 2007. It was not an easy challenge, how could the softness of our Most Pure Virgin be represented?

To paint on plaster was difficult because the colors changed once applied, but as the plans of God are perfect, a collaborator from Colombia who worked as a plastic artist and had experience on this field, arrived by chance to visit the Light-Community and, seeing the difficulty, offered to help recreate the colors to give them subtle traces and features and as a result, the brightness and purity were achieved, attributes that made the statue come alive and become the Mother of the Redeemer.

TO BE CONTINUED…