Saint Anne’s Tears

Restoring an Old Statue of the Virgin Mary

The other day I received an email from someone asking if I know where she could take an old statue of the Virgin Mary (that used to belong to her mother) to be restored.  I would think that it would all depend on what the statue looks like, what it’s made of, how old it actually is, where it originally came from, etc.  Does anyone know anything about this?

I considered writing her back and telling her that there is no way I’d be able to provide that kind of advice.  But then it occurred to me to post her question on this blog where someone may possibly have an answer.

Here is the woman’s question:

I have a very old statue of the virgen Mary which I want to restore,
but I can seem to find a place where this will be done. It used to
belong to my mother. can you help me please.

If anyone has an answer to this, please either send me an email and I’ll pass the message along to this woman or leave a comment under this post.  I, too, have a statue of the Virgin Mary that has some cracks and chips in it from years of nightstand *wear and tear.*  I remember dropping it when I was a child and finding a crack in Mary’s veil after I’d picked it up.  I felt terrible!  And a year or two ago when I was making my bed one day the comforter swung too far the wrong way over my bed and knocked the statue down where it fell between my bed and my nightstand.  After I picked it up I discovered some new cracks and chips that hadn’t been there before I’d dropped it.  I was so mad at myself that I hadn’t been more careful when I was making my bed!

A Broken Statue Cries Tears

When my mother was a little girl in Syracuse, NY there was a news story of a young girl in town whose mother, while dusting, had dropped a statue of Saint Anne (Mary’s mother) out the window which caused it to break into pieces.  The girl kissed the part that hadn’t broken and immediately saw tears on the face.  The story actually made it all the way to Time (the magazine) and this small section of the article that I’ve copied and pasted below is the only part available to non-subscribers:

Monday, Apr. 25, 1949

MANNERS & MORALS: St. Anne’s Tears

House cleaning one morning, Mrs. Arthur Martin of Syracuse, N.Y. dusted the plaster statue of St. Anne a little too hastily: it toppled from the window ledge into the cement driveway below and broke into pieces. It was swept up and dropped in an ashcan and there the eldest of the Martins’ four children, a lively, questing, eleven-year-old named Shirley Anne, found it.

Shirley Anne took the head of the statue out of the ashcan. Only its nose had been dented. She pressed her lips affectionately against it. Then she ran shrilling into the house: “Mom, the statue cried. I…

If anyone is a Time subscriber and would like to share the rest of the story with us, please do!

Manners & Morals: Where Have They Gone?

It occurs to me that this post has quite a bit of a mother/daughter/statue dynamic going on!  First there was the reader with the statue that needs repair; the statue once owned by her mother.  Then there were my clutzy stories of dropping my Virgin Mary statue, which, by the way, my mother gave me.  Then there was the news article from 1949 that mentions a mother and her daughter and a remarkable event involving tears from a statue of the Blessed Mother’s mother, Saint Anne.  And my mother told me about that story.  And then of course there is the Saint Anne/Mary relationship: mother and daughter.  And I found a lovely photo of a statue of Mary and Saint Anne which you can see I posted above.

I found myself wondering about the Time article title “Manners & Morals: St. Anne’s Tears.”   Isn’t it strange to see that sort of title in a mainstream publication such as Time?  I mean, when do we ever even see the word “morals” anymore, aside from faith-based, religious writings and other such materials?  And when do we find articles in magazines such as Time that are written about miraculous things such as a little girl in Syracuse, NY seeing a statue cry after she kissed it?  Is it just me or have we lost something along the way since that long ago April day back in 1949 where a little (yet not so little) local event in a boring place such as Syracuse, NY made worldwide news?

Prayer to Saint Anne

Good St. Anne, you were especially favored by God to be the mother of the most holy Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Savior.  By your power with your most pure daughter and with her divine Son, kindly obtain for us the grace and the favor we now seek.  Please secure for us also forgiveness of our past sins, the strength to perform faithfully our daily duties and the help we need to persevere in the love of Jesus and Mary.  Amen.

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