Statue placement

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wifenmommy

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This Sunday past, we were on vacation in dh family’s town and we went to Mass with them. Every Catholic Church I have ever been in had the Blessed Mother (as you face the alter) on the left hand side and a statue of St Joseph on the right. In this Church (which is Catholic) the Blessed Mother was on the right (as you face the alter) and on the left, a statue of someone that I could not quite determine for sure who it was. It was a man with a beard with a miter type hat on and a shepards crook. Any thoughts anyone? Btw, this Church was totally gutted during Hurricane Rita and was rebuilt, so could this just be an oversight or do some Church’s place statues where they would like?
Thanks!!

ps…every aspect of the Mass was like every Mass I had attended…
 
The statue of the man with the miter is probably the patron saint of the parish. As to placement of statues, I don’t know if there is any hard and fast rule as to which saint has to go where. But, I’m sure someone will have the canon law or GIRM passage or whatever at his fingertips. 🙂
 
I don’t have a copy of the GIRM handy, so I may be wrong (please correct me if I’m wrong), but I don’t believe there’s any rules as to what side of the church which statue should be. Sitting back and thinking about it, statues of the Blessed Mother are usually on the left, but I’ve been to several where it’s placed on the right.

And as Della said, the other is probably the patron of the parish. Sounds like it’s probably a Bishop.

In my opinion, you should be glad this Church has any statues at all. 🙂
 
Della said:
The statue of the man with the miter is probably the patron saint of the parish. As to placement of statues, I don’t know if there is any hard and fast rule as to which saint has to go where. But, I’m sure someone will have the canon law or GIRM passage or whatever at his fingertips. 🙂
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the GIRM is silent on the placement of statues because that is beyond its scope, which governs the ritual of the liturgy, which has nothing to do with statues. there are documents on building and decorating churches, but other than a guideline (not canon law) not to have multiple images of one saint, and rules on what may and may not be in the sanctuary, it doesn’t matter. I have seen churches with either placement of Mary, any of several images of Mary, paired with Joseph, paired with the Sacred HEart, paired with a statue of the parish patron (yours sounds like a bishop or pope) or alone.

we have to be careful to equate what we are familiar with or what is characteristic of churches we have known, with what is actually governed by law. 90% of the time just because we have never seen it does not make it wrong, just illustrates our own lack of wider experience. big world, big church. there is absolutely no law that says a church needs any statues.
 
Thank you all so very much. I guess that I am a bit wary in this day and time with everyone adapting the church’s teachings to fit their own agenda (I had no reason to believe this of this Church) I just had never seen it in that way before. It did bring tears to my eyes to have ssen the church rebuilt after seeing it firsthand practically destroyed by the storm. On another note, please keep this little parish in your prayers as they have yet to have the rectory and hall rebuilt.🙂
 
wifenmommy said:
This Sunday past, we were on vacation in dh family’s town and we went to Mass with them. Every Catholic Church I have ever been in had the Blessed Mother (as you face the alter) on the left hand side and a statue of St Joseph on the right. In this Church (which is Catholic) the Blessed Mother was on the right (as you face the alter) and on the left, a statue of someone that I could not quite determine for sure who it was. It was a man with a beard with a miter type hat on and a shepards crook. Any thoughts anyone? Btw, this Church was totally gutted during Hurricane Rita and was rebuilt, so could this just be an oversight or do some Church’s place statues where they would like?
Thanks!!

ps…every aspect of the Mass was like every Mass I had attended…
Click to expand...
I have seen statues of Mary on either side. The other one would have been the patron of the parish. Or in this case a statue that just wound up on the front lawn after the storm, next to the sail boat?
 
wifenmommy said:
. On another note, please keep this little parish in your prayers as they have yet to have the rectory and hall rebuilt.🙂
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God bless them, glad they can rebuild.
we have several sisters who have taken up residence in the Valley recently and are finding ministries here, there convent and motherhouse in LA has been completely destroyed and cannot be salvaged. their members, many retirement age, are scattered, some remain teaching in the NO area, others residing with members of their order or other orders elsewhere. All who can work must work to support the retirees. very sad. we still take up regular collections for parishes hit by Rita and Katrina, and still have refugees from both living here, have given up hope of returning home and making this permanent residence.
 
Br.Rich_SFO said:
I have seen statues of Mary on either side. The other one would have been the patron of the parish. Or in this case a statue that just wound up on the front lawn after the storm, next to the sail boat?
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SS. Peter and Paul in downtown Detroit was built as the in 1848 and was also the Cathedral for a time. It has a Marian side altar on the right and a Josephine side altar on the left.

So there does seem to be historical precident
 
I think the architecture of a church can mean that they place things differently. I’ve not seen what my parish has anywhere else, but I’m a relatively new Catholic also.

My church has no statues at the front that are visible as you face the altar straight on. The inside is shaped like a cross with 2 short sections facing the altar from the side and a long center aisle that goes straight up to the altar. Mary and Joseph are larger than life sized and raised on waist-high pedestals in their own sort of large alcove on each side of the church so that they are facing the altar/large crucifix (life sized Jesus) that is behind and to the right of the altar.

I love that Mary and Joseph are looking right at Jesus. They are also placed where they cannot be the focus during mass unless someone looks away from the altar/sanctuary area.

Our other saint statues including our patron are in niches in the hall/narthex out the back of the main church/main chapel. We also have quite a few smaller ones in niches in an elaborate floor-to-ceiling retabla behind the altar in our large chapel while there is another large Mary with her own kneeler in an alcove off the right aisle of the chapel.

I guess we don’t have a “traditional” placement at all?

stannparish.org/ctour/categories/category.html?id=1&mode=thumb
 
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