A statue of Our Lady believers say has slashed the number of deaths on a Northland road has been restored and returned to its place overlooking the once accident-plagued highway.
For more than 20 years, Our Lady of the Highway – known to locals as Matou Whaea (Our Lady) – has looked out over State Highway 12 from a hillside in Omanaia, in staunchly Catholic South Hokianga.
However, time and weather had taken its toll on the statue, cast almost 150 years ago from melted-down armaments collected from a European battlefield, and it was in dire need of restoration.
After a fundraising campaign, the life-size statue was removed, sandblasted and repainted, and a shelter was built to protect it from the elements.
After a three-month absence, the restored statue was unveiled last Saturday as about 30 parishioners braved mud, heavy rain and a cold wind.
It was blessed by Father Kerry Prendeville, the Hokianga priest whose brother, Father Brian Prendeville, brought the statue to Northland in the early 1990s.
Originally called Our Lady of Lourdes, it was shipped to a Marist community in Napier in the 1890s and installed at St Patrick’s Church.
When the church was damaged by fire, the statue was moved to a seminary at nearby Meeanee; after a flood in 1910, the entire complex was moved to Greenmeadows.
When the seminary shifted to Auckland in 1990, the statue was left behind, ending up in the hands of Father Brian.
Source
- nzherald.co.nz
- Image: nzherald.co.nz
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