Burial of the Statue of the Blessed Mother

Photos courtesy of William Ludewig and Mike Dragonetti. Copy courtesy of Mike Dragonetti:

On Easter Sunday, our statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary was beheaded in front of St. Martha’s Parish Center. After a replacement statue was obtained and blessed at the feast of St. Martha, plans to bury the former statue began. To prepare for the burial, on Sunday, August 12, Knights of Columbus members William Ludewig, Hernst Bellevue, Mike Dragonetti (and William’s brother-in-law Phil Tirrito) dug a hole where the statue would be buried.

After each Mass on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, Monsignor Caldwell invited the parishioners to come to the center aisle to reverence, kiss, or touch the hand of Mary’s statue that was broken off during the vandalism. After the 7:30 pm Masses, the Spanish and Haitian communities and the Knights of Columbus had a prayer service over the grave, then sprinkled dirt and placed flowers into the grave, before filling in the plot.

More can be found in the August 22nd, 2007 Long Island Catholic