Every weekday, students and faculty walk onto the Sacred Hearts Academy campus. At 7:45 a.m., the school gathers to pray in unison at the large white Our Lady of Peace statue. The students, clad in their white and blue unvarying uniforms, stand in fixed lines, reciting the prayer, “Our lady of peace, pray for us, protect us and save us.”
After this time, when all students and faculty return to class, the statue is more or less forgotten. They walk past the schools’ statues and installations with indifference.
“I kind of just see it. I mean, I’ve been going here my whole life, and I don’t really know anything about it,” sophomore Kaila Aiwohi-McKee said.
The Our Lady of Peace statue was enacted in the Academy in the early 1950s. Non-coincidentally, soon after World War II and the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, such statues were felt to grant protection in times of war. During World War II, the nuns at the Academy would pray the same prayer that now resonates at the Academy.
“The sisters made the promise that if our schools were protected and no harm would come to them, they would put a statue of Our Lady of Peace–a big one like that one we have in all our schools,” Head of Campus Ministry Sister Katherine-Francis Miller said.
Miller could speak on this firsthand; she joined the Academy in the 1950s, shortly after the statue was enacted. The statue has come long and far from its origins. The statue is based off of the original statue made in the 17th century. The original was made by Duc de Joyeuse for his bride, which was believed to have had many healing benefits. One of which was its alleged responsibility for the healing of Louis the 14th. Mary’s distinct braids and long flowing gown is indicative of the influence of early Greek art on this era, as that was the model for the statue.
Cradled in the left forearm of Mary is Jesus. Jesus holds a globe with a central cross perched atop it to signify his position as the Prince of Peace and savior of the world.
“Our Lady is holding a child, right? And the child is holding the world,” Miller said.
Held in Mary’s other hand is an olive branch in reference to the branch brought by the dove after the flood in the story of Noah’s Ark.
Enshrined onto the base of the statue is an inscription with the name of a girl who passed while she was a student at the school. Karen Maureen Iselin was a first grader when she passed away in December of 1953. The base was donated to the school by her family out of gratitude for the school’s prayers so that she could pass in peace and the love of God.
Our lady has been incorporated into so many traditions at the Academy. From the Morning flag to float processions, the Our Lady of Peace statue continues to be a fixture in the Academy community.
