Workers from Ohio-based Henningers, Inc., install the 1400-lb. marble statue of St. Peter Chanel outside Notre Dame’s lower division school building.Two refurbished statues of the Marist Saint Peter Chanel were delivered today and installed at Notre Dame's new lower-division campus. The statues previously were located at St. Peter Chanel Catholic High School in Bedford, Ohio.
Heningers, Inc., a Cleveland-based religious goods company, refurbished the statues for Notre Dame and mounted the six-foot carrara marble St. Peter Chanel to a cement base just outside the main entrance. The 60-inch wooden version was installed inside the school doors in the main gathering space.
"As the Marists celebrate 150 years of work in the United States and we at Notre Dame also celebrate a number of milestones this year, it is fitting and almost 'providential' that these two statues were available to us," said NDPMA head of school Fr. Leon Olszamowski, s.m. "We are proud to have them on our campus."
About St. Peter Chanel: Father Peter Chanel was one of an early group of Catholic missionaries to the Southwest Pacific who set out from France in December 1836. The group was destined to found the Catholic Church in Western Oceania and New Zealand. Father Chanel and a Marist catechist, Brother Marie-Nizier, lived on the island of Futuna, north of the Fijian Islands, and labored there for three years.
In 1841, Peter Chanel was killed by a group of warriors incited by the leading chief of Futuna, in hatred of the faith that threatened his control over the people.
Peter Chanel was acknowledged as a martyr in 1889 and canonized in 1954 by Pope Pius XII. As a foundation member of the Society of Mary, Peter Chanel is acknowledged by the wider Marist family, including the Marist Sisters (Peter Chanel had a sister in this congregation), and indeed all of the Marists worldwide in Australia, Europe, Mexico, New Zealand, Oceania and North America.
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is operated by the Marist Fathers and Brothers of the USA Province.
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This carved-wood rendering of St. Peter Chanel stands five-feet tall and can be seen just inside the main entrance of Notre Dame Marist Academy – Lower Division.
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.
