Statues for convents, monasteries and prayer groups

Most religious communities already know which statue they want, because it comes from their founder or their spirituality. A Carmelite house will want Our Lady of Mount Carmel and perhaps St Thérèse; a Franciscan friary, St Francis; a Mercy convent, Our Lady of Mercy; a Salesian house, Our Lady Help of Christians. Communities dedicated to the Sacred Heart, to St Joseph or to the Holy Family will look for those.

What a community usually needs help with is not which saint, but which size and which material for the place: a chapel that seats fifteen is not a parish church, and a cloister garden is not a back garden. If your community’s patron is not in the catalogue, marble can be carved to order.

For a group that meets in a borrowed room, the statue goes home in someone’s car every week. Painted resin is the sensible choice: it is light, it is posted for a flat €15 per order anywhere in Ireland, and a smaller piece fits easily on a meeting-room table with a cloth, two candles and flowers. Carry it upright, wrapped, and never by the head or the hands.

For a chapel, a cloister or a garden that the community will keep, hand-carved marble is made for exactly that. It is heavier and we deliver it ourselves to any county; the charge is on each statue’s page. In a cloister or a garden it weathers gently and can be washed down in spring — the care notes are on our story page.

Communities often buy a statue to mark something: a jubilee of profession, a new house, the centenary of a foundation, or a sister or brother going to a mission. We have a page on gifts for ordination and religious profession, and if you want a piece engraved or carved specially for an anniversary, write to us and we will tell you what can be done.