I finally made a visit to the
Museum of Divine Statues a few weeks ago. It is located right in my
own backyard in the city of Lakewood, OH. Over the past few years in
Cleveland a plethora of Catholic churches have been shut down because
many are considered redundant. The Museum of Divine
Statues made one of these churches, St. Hedwig, its home. Its creative
reuse of the building is especially appropriate because the museum
houses statues from other churches in the Cleveland area that have been
closed. In this way the museum not only preserves
one particular church, but has also saved many beloved statues that
would otherwise be lost.
St. Hedwig
St. Hedwig historically had a primarily Polish
congregation, as did many of the other churches in the area due to the large number of immigrants from Eastern
and Central Europe that came to Cleveland. In addition
to St. Hedwig, other closed Polish churches include St. Adalbert, St.
Casimir, St. Hyacinth, and
St. Stanislaus. Note that there are multiple saints with the same
names and that there were even several churches in Cleveland named after
the same saints that were closed. In the end, 29 total parishes were
closed and there were 18 different mergers. For
pictures of specific churches that were closed, visit Patrick Richard’s
blog
Closing Catholic Churches in Cleveland or search the
Cleveland Memory Project. For the complete list of churches affected by the closings and mergers, click
here.
Beyond the museum’s connections with the extensive
church closings, it is a great space in its own right. One of the most
interesting things about the museum to me was the opportunity it gave
visitors to see many different versions of the
same saints at the same time. I was especially struck by
the vast number of Mary figures I got to see in one place. Because there
are so many different aspects of or titles for Mary, having numerous
statues of her is
a great way to compare these various aspects. There were also at least
three different statues of the Child of Prague, who is a very common
representation of Jesus in Cleveland due to the large Czech population
in the city and suburbs.
Mary - Our Lady of Perpetual Help (St. Margaret of Hungary - Chagrins Falls)
The museum was also fun to visit because it includes statues of several less common saints. Saint Lucy, Saint Barbara, and Saint Hedwig were some of the saints that were least familiar to me that were represented in the museum. The objects associated with all three saints are a bit unusual. Saint Lucy, pictured below, is depicted holding a plate with eyes to show that her eyes were gouged out prior to her execution. Saint Hedwig is typically shown holding a monastery or a pair of shoes while Saint Barbara wields a sword. Since visiting the museum, I actually came across Saint Barbara in my summer course on African-American art. I learned that Saint Barbara is often associated with the African orisa Ogun in the religious tradition of Candomblé. Ogun is the god of iron and war and therefore is visually connected to Saint Barbara because of her sword.
St. Lucy (Our Lady of Mount Carmel - Cleveland)
Of all the statues, my favorite was the one of Joan
of Arc. The statue was so well done and the marble eyes had a deepness
to them that the other statues did not. Compositionally the statue was
engaging because of the sculpture’s sensitive
tilting head and the presence of the banner and the sword. I’ve also
always simply loved Joan of Arc and her story and took her name for my
confirmation name.
If you live in Northeast Ohio, I would highly
recommend that you visit the Museum of Divine Statues. Lou McClung, the
founder of the museum who restores many of the statues, seems genuinely
passionate about Cleveland religious history.
His mother, who you’ll likely meet when you buy your ticket ($8), is
also deeply invested in the museum and extremely friendly. My only
complaint about the museum is that its hours are too short, though I
understand that being open more would be costly. The
museum is only open from noon until four on Sundays. If you have a Sunday afternoon free though, you should take the time to stop by.
St. Christopher - "Christ-bearer"
