Identify Statue

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If the photos I tried to attach to this post do not appear, go to s147.photobucket.com/albums/r307/PatrickNFLD/

I am trying to identify an old statue.

It was given to me atleast third hand by someone who said it was Saint Benedict. It could be an unusual depiction of Saint Benedict or it could be another Saint. I need a second opinion.

The white male Saint has a long white beard and hair with a receding hairline. He is wearing a brown ankle length tunic with a brown robe over his shoulders. Unless it is implied, he does not have a cowl (hood). His robe is trimmed in gold. The cord around his wait is gold with two ends and hangs in the front. He is wearing a gold zucchetto (skull cap). The gold could just be highlight or ornamentation of the “original” clothing. He is wearing black shoes. He reading from a black book.

This description does not shout Saint Benedict to me. He is usually depicted wearing black or grey/white (the original Benedictine colors), showing a book (his rule), holding a Cross or Crosier, and tonsured without a zucchetto or wearing a cowl.

So, your opinion please…

If the photos I tried to attach to this post do not appear, go to s147.photobucket.com/albums/r307/PatrickNFLD/
 
I don’t think it’s Benedict. It doesn’t have any of his symbols and the robe isn’t the right color (has it been painted over?)

It reminds me quite a bit of a statue in my parish chapel, but I cannot for the life of me remember the saint’s name. I’ll check on Sunday and let you know.

Guess the saint is one of my favorite games.
 
It looks something like St. Anthony the Abbot but I don’t know for sure.
 
For a while I was thinking it was St. Benedict but I searched and he always had a staff in his depictions.

I also thought for sure it was St. Ignacious of Laconi but BAM! he also had a staff in his statues.

I thought it could have been Matthew but in all of his, he had a full head of hair and a scroll instead of a book.

Now I’m pretty sure that its St. Luke but I’m prepared to be disappointed if it isn’t.
 
To me it looks an awful lot like St Leopold Mandic, however he is usually depicted wearing his violet stole, as he had a great reputation as a confessor, not unlike St Pio of Pietrelcina.

And I don’t know that the saint is Franciscan, even though the habit is brown the cord doesn’t have the numerous knots a Franciscan’s cord has.

However, going on the Franciscan theme, St Lawrence of Brindisi fits - he is a Doctor of the Church, so is usually depicted with a book (although with Doctors its more traditional to depict them actually writing in said book)

Have you lifted up the statue and seen if there is any writing on the bottom of it? (And I don’t mean around the base - from the pictures I can see that there’s nothing written around the base)

If there is it might give you some clues. Even knowing where it was made might be a good hint.
 
I knew I would get some good responses. Thanks! 👍

Now, to answer the questions:

The statue could be painted over from a Benedictine color to a Franciscan. There are a few finger prints in the paint which looks amateurish, but I can not find any missed spots where the original color shows through. But, I could be taking the highlights or shading in the color as intentionally painted on not places where the re-paint was put on lighter.

There is no visible name on the base. The base has black felt stuck on the bottom. It could be original or it could have been put there by a previous holder to help it from tipping and cover up the name in the process. I could peel off the felt and replace it, but I’d like to avoid doing that.

Likewise, there is no visible “made in” mark. If it helps, I got it from a person and in a place of stong Irish ancestroy. There were Francisians, Redemptorists, and Jesuits in the area once, but no Benedictines.

He could be Saint Benedict painted over, he could be Francisian, he could be someone else. The zucchetto (skull cap) throws me off too as most Benedictines or Francisians you see have either a bare blad head or with a hood. Perhaps the zucchetto could allude to Bishop who usually has a staff. So, this Saint Benedict’s staff could be implied, but this seems like too much of a jump to me.

For photos go to s147.photobucket.com/albums/r307/PatrickNFLD/
 
It’s certainly not a Dominican or a Carmelite or a Canon, and the absence of a monastic cowl/hood kind of rules out it being a monk of any sort either.

OTOH, though, the presence of the zuchetto does not necessarily rule out it being a Franciscan of one type or another. Many Franciscans still use it, even though I believe it’s now optional. But, it appears that the figure is wearing shoes rather than sandals. Maybe Brother JR has some (name removed by moderator)ut.

This one is a stumper. :confused:
 
Oh, I hope this link works!

Look at this picture: stanthonyrockford.com/parish/galleryimages/images/SA-080_jpg.jpg

When I looked at the picture you posted, I recognized him–at least I think it’s the same guy–as this picture. He’s one of the statues of saints in the Italian parish in our city, which is run by the Franciscans.

If you think it’s the same guy, perhaps you can contact our Italian parish and ask for the name of the saint. The older people in the church walked me through the many statues in the nave once and told me their names, and I think this guy was someone like “Paulus” or something like that. But I can’t remember. 😦

Is there any reason why your statue would have some kind of Italian heritage?

How exciting! How fun! This should be a weekly contest on CAF–post a picture of some Catholic saint or relic and ask for the identity. The winner could be featured in a banner running across the top of the Forums section!
 
 
LilyM said:
To me it looks an awful lot like St Leopold Mandic,
Click to expand...
St. Leopold! That’s who I was thinking of. I don’t think, in his statue in our chapel, that he’s wearing his stole, but it’s a completely wooden statue with no paint.

Of course, if it’s entirely possible it’s just meant to be a generic monk, but honestly the zuchetto makes me doubt that.

If it isn’t a generic monk, my vote is for St. Leopold.
 
CatholicLife said:
I was think it might be Saint Anthony of the Desert.
google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i.ebayimg.com/19/!Bq)v7Gw!2k~%24(KGrHqYOKkQEu,nHsYE4BLw23GPnw!~~_3.JPG&imgrefurl=http://cgi.ebay.ph/CATHOLIC-CHURCH-Statue-St-Anthony-Desert-/200460778940&usg=__k7wtit7NvtBGrrWU6DY4O0ZRC7o=&h=800&w=600&sz=76&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=XDIOAbbwkbR0dM:&tbnh=152&tbnw=138&prev=/images%3Fq%3DSaint%2BAnthony%2Bof%2Bthe%2BDesert%2Bstatue%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1R2ADSA_enUS378%26biw%3D1259%26bih%3D870%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=180&ei=8LbVTOmvMozCsAPFmtWGCw&oei=8LbVTOmvMozCsAPFmtWGCw&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=32&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0&tx=49&ty=53v7Gw!2k~%24(KGrHqYOKkQEu,nHsYE4BLw23GPnw!~~_3.JPG&imgrefurl=http://cgi.ebay.ph/CATHOLIC-CHURCH-...page=1&ndsp=32&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0&tx=49&ty=53)
Click to expand...
That’s what I was thinking as well…

However, for the most part he is depicted wearing black. Here is the Google link.
google.com/images?hl=en&expIds=17259,17291,22881,23320,23756,24692,24878,24879,26637,27400,27404&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=st.+anthony+of+the+desert&cp=16&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=899

I’m having fun trying to figure this one out.
 
I don’t want to be a killjoy, but I don’t think it represents any saint at all. I think it’s just a statue of a monk or friar. You can find lots of similar figures in antique stores (you can find monk/friar salt and pepper shakers!).
 
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