Often overlooked in the rear of St. Peter’s Church are three statues that are part of our recent history, and call to mind past parishioners, now deceased, whom many longtime members will still recall. Unlike the windows and statues at the front, which date from the second church (1890-1940), these three were gifted or restored as part of the renovation of the church in the mid-1980s.
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St. Therese of Lisieux stands in the back corner on the north (C Street) side of the church. Popularly known as “the Little Flower,” St. Therese was born in 1873 and entered the Carmelite order at the age of 15. A sickly young woman who was just 24 when she died, she is remembered for her “little way” of seeking perfection in the ordinary. Her statue was a gift to St. Peter’s from Vinia and Bruce Gwinn in honor of their daughter Bianca, who died as a baby. The dedication plate reads: “Until the end of the world I will spend my heaven doing good upon earth. St. Therese of the Child Jesus, in memory of Bianca Grandis Gwinn.”
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton resides opposite St. Therese, in the back corner on the south (rectory) side of the church. St. Elizabeth was born in 1774 into an Episcopalian family in New York City. She married and had five children. After the death of her husband, she became a Catholic and, at the request of a Baltimore priest, opened a school there in 1805. A few years later she founded the U.S. Sisters of Charity. She died in 1821. Canonized in 1975, she is the first U.S.-born saint, and the patron saint of converts. Rose Breen donated St. Elizabeth’s statue to the parish in honor of her late husband. The plaque reads: “In memory of M. Francis Breen.”
The Sacred Heart of Jesus, a much larger statue than the other two, stands in the alcove by the south door to the church. Devotion to the Sacred Heart began with St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a 17th-century French saint. In the 1670s, she received four visions of Christ’s heart in flames, burning with love for humanity, with instructions to promote a special feast and First Friday devotions. This statue of the Sacred Heart is not the first one in St. Peter’s; there is a photograph of a different one near the main Jubilee altar, which was installed in 1896. The age and origin of the present statue are unknown. But by the time of the renovation of the church in the 1980s, it had become worn and damaged. Rosemary McCarthy undertook the restoration of the statue and dedicated it to her parents. The plaque reads: “In memory of Thomas F. McCarthy [and] Mary E. McCarthy.”