More On Statues...

Yesterday's cri de coeur was occasioned by the fact that I finally managed to do some light dusting... the dust in question was caused by the electricians who came along at Easter, but, frankly, housework has been rather low on my list of priorities.

The dusting meant that I needed to rearrange my statues, and I discovered a few which had been put away for safe-keeping, as well as finding a few broken ones (hence the last post) ... a friend has kindly offered to bury the remains of those in her back garden, provided I don't want her to dispose of a life-size Padre Pio (future archaeologists may have quite a conundrum to puzzle over!)

Out of interest, I decided to count my statues: I have 29.

I have 11 of Our Lady: one large plain white pottery Madonna and child, very minimalist; one pottery statue of Notre Dame des Eaux, coloured to look like beige stone (my favourite... a copy of the one in St. Bernadette's convent at Nevers, France, and the one she said most resembled Our Lady... it's in the photo above); a Pietá; two statues of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (one 22 cm, the other about 10 cm); two statues of Our Lady of Fatima (one about 13 cm, the other about 20 cm); one statue of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; one Madonna and infant Jesus; one statue of Our Lady of Lourdes (an unusual one); and, finally, one large statue (about 50 cm) of Our Lady of Grace (the "Miraculous Medal" pose.)

Jesus is next... though I'm not counting the statues where he appears with someone else. I have two statues of the Infant of Prague and one Sacred Heart statue.

Then there are the saints: three statues of St. Jude; two statues of St. Thérèse of Lisieux; one statue of St. Joseph and the child Jesus; a large statue of St. John Fisher (I was a Form Tutor for 7JF in one school); St. Benedict; St. Juan Diego Cuahtlatoatzin (no, don't ask me to pronounce it...); St. Anthony of Padua; one very minimalist statue of St. Bernadette; St. Patrick; St. Martha; St. Philomena; and, finally, St. Michael the archangel.

I haven't included my four broken statues: two Sacred Hearts, Our Lady of Grace and Our Lady of Fatima. I also haven't included the many statues which I have bought for friends...

The reason I have so many duplicate statues is that I used to have several statues in my classroom, back when I taught RE in Catholic schools. I thought that, as one can't stay focussed on one thing for very long, it would be a good idea to have lots of statues (and pictures) for my students to gaze at when their attention wandered.

Anyway, doing this has given me an idea. We haven't had any memes doing the rounds for a while, so I'm going to start one.

The rules are simple. Count the number of statues in your house (NB. priests are not allowed to count the statues in their church as well as the ones in their house... unfair advantage!!) Describe the statues, and/or put up some photos. Then tag three people. I'm keeping the tag number low so that everyone has a chance to tag someone...

My three nominees:

1) Fr. Ray Blake

2) Paulinus

3) Ttony

Of course, if you feel like playing along, go ahead, and leave a message in the com-box.

UPDATE: I was asked to put up a photo of my statue of St. Philomena by Amanda, whose daughter goes to St. Philomena's school. I'm very happy to do so, as St. Philomena is one of my recent favourites...