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Story and photos by Lara Pickford-Gordon
snrwriter.camsel@catholictt.org
The restoration of St Francis RC Church, Belmont is proceeding apace with the completion in sight for May. Meanwhile, Sr Catherine Therese McComie OP is using her creative talent to spruce up several statues from the church.
The Sacred Heart, Christ on the cross, the Infant Jesus of Prague, St Martin, St Catherine, St Joseph, are familiar to her from growing up in Belmont and attending Mass with her family. They lived at Westbury Lane, Belmont.
Sr Catherine Therese recalls the position of some of the statutes. “St Martin was in the corner—when you come up the steps on the right-hand side in a little corner, there was a little alcove.”
She has been working steadily in a room at the St Dominic’s Convent where the statues of Jesus, and St Francis are. Her attention is focused at present on the Sacred Heart, who is gradually nearing completion. Simultaneously, and bit by bit, she is doing the Stations of the Cross.
Sr Catherine Therese’s involvement with sprucing up the statues belonging to St Francis RC started last May when statues of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Bernadette from the grotto were sent to her.
On April 22, 2023 two men entered the compound of St Francis and vandalised the statues and glass panes of the Pastoral Centre. She was approached by Linda Stephen about fixing Our Lady but said she wanted to first see the damage.
Sr Catherine Therese asked that all the fragments be sent. The statue came in two boxes; the head and feet were intact, but the body was very damaged.
Sr Catherine Therese agreed to try but the dilemma was joining the top and bottom parts. She sought advice from her friend, artist/designer Gregory Medina, who worked with her. It was painstaking work over two months.
A table leg, wadding and concrete filling formed a support upon for the upper part and the fragments assembled. Sr Catherine Therese said, “I just think of what I can do, and I just do it.”
During the interview she said in earnest, “I don’t like to see broken things, no matter what…I don’t like to see it, because I always feel you can mend it.” She points to two horse heads which she is fixing for her brother, Dennis.
After completing Our Lady, Sr Catherine Therese was asked to work on other pieces; these were in storage during the restoration. “I said ‘yes, yes’, I like doing it, I am thinking one, two statues,” Sr Catherine Therese said.
Though she agreed, she was forthright when the statue of St Joseph came. “I said I cannot do feet and I cannot do hands…limbs. I am trial and error. If I have to make the part, it is difficult,” she said.
The hands and feet were redone by restoration artist Judi Sheppard and returned. Next, was the statue of St Dominic receiving the chaplet from Our Lady; Jesus was missing three fingers and a flower had to be added but she got to work and completed it. “That statue was on the left-hand niche of Belmont,” Sr Catherine Therese said.
One of the first statues from inside the church that she worked was the statue of St Martin de Porres. Plaster of Paris was used to mend his back and foot. “His shoe was split, the base of St Martin was very shaky…with the Plaster of Paris I put a few layers and I use the epoxy for the smaller cracks, and he is very sturdy now, so it is trial and error.”
She adjusted the colours. “It was black and white yes but, the crucifix in dark brown, the face in dark brown, the hand in dark brown.”
She invites feedback on the statues and asks Medina and artist/designer Christopher Santos for critiques. Sr Catherine Therese recounted that when the statue of St Martin was completed, she asked someone, “‘What you think about this statue?’ And the lady looked at it and said, ‘he lookin’ dead’.”
Sr Catherine Therese called Santos to help with the eyes. “When I am not sure I will get somebody to do those little pieces,” she said.
Her last step in the revamping of the statues is applying the sealer. “It looks so bright and pretty; I just feel so good.”
She tells me she isn’t much of an artist. She joked that Sybil Atteck, the renowned local painter/sculptor, was her art teacher when she attended St Joseph’s Convent Port of Spain, but she still failed art.
Her love is for craft and making things. She recalled when her mother travelled to visit her siblings abroad, she would purchase craft items. “All the different gadgets you could use, I like that,” Sr Catherine Therese said.
Out of a love of painting and for “beauty’s sake” she began tidying up the statues in the convent chapel, while it was being refurbished about ten years ago.
“I think beauty is something… it has to manifest itself whatever you are doing and wherever you are; so, I did all those statues,” she said.
Sr Catherine Therese is leaving the four-foot statue of St Francis of Assisi for last. She says his face is beautifully done but the paint on his garment is flaked and there are spots.
Refurbishing the statues is a sideline in a still busy vocation with duties at the St Dominic’s Children’s Home including preparing children for Baptism, First Communion, and taking care of the chapel. At nights she can get some work done. At 81 years, she thanks God for eyesight and hands that can work.
Sr Catherine Therese knows that perfection is an ideal and she is not a professional artist. She however adheres to the words of her favourite saint, St Thérèse of Lisieux: “Her message is: do ordinary things extraordinarily well, and that is what I think I put into the statues.”
