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Carthage Woman Restoring Church Statue

Story Published: May 6, 2012 at 8:08 PM EDT

Story Updated: May 6, 2012 at 8:08 PM EDT

Call it "a labor of love": a painstaking restoration of the Pieta statue at St. James Minor Catholic Church in Carthage.

"It's a large statute of Mary holding the body of Christ after he was taken down from the cross," explains parishioner Mary Beth Renaud.

All told, Renaud will put hundreds of hours into restoring this century old statute.

She's already stripped the paint off the statue and sanded it down. Now, she's beginning to paint.

"There's a lot of layering involved, especially when you're doing a repair of plaster, because you can't just put it on, otherwise it doesn't dry," Renaud said. "You've got to put it on slowly, in layers, and then a lot of sanding in between."

Renaud grew up going to church at St. James and says the restoration project is her way of giving back to the place she calls home.

This isn't Renaud's first project for the church - she's restored other statues. Her first big project was restoring a large statue of Jesus on the cross.

She had little experience with restoration when she started volunteering. Even now, she says, it's a lot of trial and error and a lot of prayer.

"Okay Lord, here I am to work on you, make sure I do it right," she said.

There's a lot more work to be done on the Pieta, and Renaud expects to put in more late nights.

She hopes to have it finished by the end of the month.
 
Thursday, May 23, 2013
, Watertown, NY

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