From antique store to chapel, restored Virgin Mary statue inspires church in Berks

Jim Corson stopped in a Schuylkill County antique store hoping to find religious artifacts earlier this year and walked out with something better than he could have wished for.

He left cradling a century-old statue of the Virgin Mary, and though it was in rough shape, he could see its potential.

Corson of West Lawn is a devout member of St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Spring Township and for years has felt a bond with the Virgin Mary, stemming partly from a life-changing spiritual experience he had.

He and his wife, Michelle, found the statue in Studio 895, a consignment store near New Ringgold, and bought it for $75.

He then made it his mission to restore it and donate it to the church. The pastor, Father Thomas Bortz, agreed to give it a fitting home on a pedestal in the St. Ignatius chapel.

“It was way too beautiful to keep for myself,” Corson said. “Putting it in the chapel felt right.”

He and a friend traced the statue’s history, determining it was built by Italian immigrants in a Chicago factory in the early 1900s. It was then displayed in an Allentown convent, but that home closed long ago and the statue remained abandoned there for decades.

The best place to restore it, Corson thought, was the Chicago company — Daprato Rigali Studios — where it was built long ago. They estimated the job at $5,000, so Corson asked for donations from church members, and quickly raised all he needed.

“His passion was contagious,” Bortz said.

Corson, 62, and another parishioner then made two trips to Chicago, first to drop the statue off and again to pick it up.

The 3-foot-tall figure was finally introduced at a recent service at St. Ignatius, and when it was unveiled it drew gasps from churchgoers struck by its beauty, Bortz said.

In his homily, Bortz compared the parish’s restoration of the chipped, faded statue to what Mary does for Catholics when they are experiencing tough times, helping to repair them.

The statue is on permanent display in the church’s chapel, where many have already stopped to see it and pray in recent weeks.

“We hope it lasts another 100 years,” Bortz said.

Corson, who leads a devotion group that prays the Rosary at the church on Sunday afternoons, said even in the statue’s deteriorated state it was one of the most beautiful representations of the Virgin Mary that he had ever seen, and now even more so.

He feels he was meant to find the statue, and that St. Ignatius is where it was destined to be.

“This wasn’t a coincidence. It was a gift,” he said. “My faith is stronger than ever.”

Bortz said the church is fortunate to have Corson, with his love for Mary and his perseverance, and also to have such generous members.

But he agreed with Corson that there was more to the story than that.

“There was a higher power working here,” he said. “We feel blessed.”