The blessing of the finished statue of St. Marianne Cope

Dale Zarrella’s sculpture of Saint Marianne Cope received a traditional Hawaiian blessing and a blessing by the priest from the local Catholic Church on June 14, 2015.

Mother Marianne came to the leper colony on Molokai as Father (now Saint) Damien was dying. She cared for Damien until his death, then assumed his ministry to the residents of Kalaupapa. Her ministry was particularly directed at women and girls. Saint Marianne was canonized in 2012.

The model for the young girl beside Mother Marianne was Dale Zarrella’s granddaughter. She and her younger brother are in front of Dale in the photo above.

CREATING THE STATUE

The life sized statue was cared out the trunk of a monkey pod tree.

The statue was carved from this monkey pod tree

Dale began the work by making a half sized statue from clay. This was then cast in plaster. He then used giant calipers to translate the major dimensions of the half sized study into the full sized statue.

Half size plaster study of Mother Marianne and child

The first rough cuts are done with a chain saw. The last touches are with 2000 grit sandpaper.

First cuts