MADERA- For decades, Our Lady of Lourdes watched over the Immaculate Conception Church in Madera, now she has a new purpose as she watches over the Immaculate
Conception Cemetery in Madera.
In 1986, using stone slabs from Mount Rushmore and Vermont granite, a statue that would stand 16 feet high on its pedestal was hand-carved by a Transylvanian immigrant. Teodor
Strole spent about five months turning stone into the Blessed Mother, where the people of Madera could stop to pray.
For over 30 years, Our Lady of Lourdes stood faithfully in the small garden that had been behind the Immaculate Conception Church in Madera. When the church was dismantled in
2012 and the parishioners became part of Christ the King Parish, the statue remained as a shrine and a memory of the church that had been in that place.
People continued to stand in front of the statue to pray even after the church was dismantled, Paul Kitko, a Christ the King Pastoral Council member, said.
Recently, the land where the church had stood had been sold, the question remained of what would become of the statue. To honor the history of the Madera church and all those
who had been part of it, the decision was made to give Our Lady of Lourdes a new place of honor in the Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Madera. This will allow the people of
Madera to continue to visit her right in their own community.
It took the entire summer and most of the fall to complete the move, but she now stands proudly in the center of the cemetery.
Earl Wenz, Inc., Breinigsville, and Philipsburg Marble and Granite, Philipsburg, Bob Demko Jr. Masonry, Houtzdale, McClelland Plumbing and Welding, McKees Rock, and Centre
Concrete, Bellefonte, worked together using a crane donated by Glenn O’Hawbaker and a flatbed truck donated by Priselac Farm, to move the statue to the new location.
Kitko said it took several years to gather all the information needed to ensure the statue was moved properly. The most important part, he said, was to make sure the Lady of
Lourdes statue would continue to be available to the people of Madera.
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