St. Angela Merici
Our client, Urban Community School, Cleveland, Ohio, whom we had done a “Welcoming Christ & Children” sculpture scene for in the past, approached us to make a sculpture of St. Angela Merici and Sister Dorothy Kazel depicted bringing a little girl to St. Angela for their school.
Tom did a lot of research on St. Angela who started the Ursulines and was particularly impressed by her humility. It is said that people used to comment on her beautiful hair, so she started putting ash on it in humility to not draw attention to herself.
Since there are no actual photos of her, we used our granddaughter, Isabella, as a model and dressed her in period clothing. We felt she displayed the kindness, beautiful hair and sweet temperament writings about St. Angela conveyed.
Below is some of the research, but you can read more online.
Angela Merici (21 March 1474 – 27 January 1540) was an Italian Catholic religious educator who founded the Company of St. Ursula in 1535 in Brescia in which women dedicated their lives to the service of the Church through the education of girls. This organization later became the Order of St. Ursula with nuns throughout Europe and then worldwide and largely in North America.
After her death, Merici was venerated by Catholics around the world and a cause for sainthood was opened. She was canonized by Pope Pius VII in 1807.
Merici taught her companions to serve God while remaining in the world, teaching the girls of their own neighborhood, and to practice a religious form of life in their own homes. The members wore no special habit and took no formal religious vows.
Merici wrote a Rule of Life for the group, which specified the practice of celibacy, poverty and obedience in their own homes. The Ursulines opened orphanages and schools. On 18 March 1537, she was elected “Mother and Mistress” of the group. The Rule she had written was approved in 1544 by Pope Paul III.
The traditional view is that Merici believed that better Christian education was needed for girls and young women, to which end she dedicated her life.
Since there are no historical portraits of St. Angela Merici, Isabella served as the model for this sculpture. Dressed in period clothing, she beautifully reflected the gentleness, humility, and inner strength described in historical writings about St. Angela. Her presence helped bring authenticity and warmth to the final bronze work.
Sister Dorothy Kazel
Dorothy Kazel, OSU (June 30, 1939 – December 2, 1980), was an American Ursuline religious sister and missionary to El Salvador. On December 2, 1980, she was beaten, raped, and murdered along with three fellow missionaries by members of the El Salvador military.
According to information available online and in Wikipea that we researched, Kazel was born Dorthea Lu Kazel in Cleveland, Ohio and she joined the Ursulines, in 1960. She took the name Sister Laurentine, in honor of an Ursuline nun martyred during the French Revolution. She later became known as Sister Dorothy. In the Central American community where she died, she was known as Madre Dorthea (Dorothy).
Kazel completed her bachelor’s degree and [novitiate] “Novitiate”) between 1960 and 1965. Beginning in 1965, she taught for seven years in Cleveland, and did missionary work among the Papago Tribe of Arizona. Between 1972-1974, Kazel served as a guidance counselor at Beaumont School, in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.[[2]]
After finishing a master’s degree in counseling in 1974, Kazel decided to partake in the challenge of joining the Diocese of Cleveland’s mission team working in El Salvador.Once there, Kazel worked in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in La Libertad, training cathecists, carrying out sacramental preparation programs, and overseeing the distribution of Catholic Relief Services aid and food supplies. She was also engaged in working with refugees from the Salvadoran Civil War, obtaining food, shelter, and medical supplies, and transporting the sick and injured to medical facilities.
