Fr. Stanley Smolenski  spma – Director of the Kingstree Shrine

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For some time the space between the Tabernacle and the icon of Our Lady of South Carolina – Our Lady and Mother of Joyful Hope in her Kingstree Shrine seemed to require something. It turned out to be more than for only esthetic purposes.

 

In 2010 there suddenly developed a local interest in the Holy Face of Jesus. Three groups of people asked me about a spirituality based on devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus.  When I was given an unfinished icon of the Holy Face at the end of that year, I immediately knew it was meant for that space. An artist agreed to work on it, but because of health and other issues she had to postpone it – for two and a half years.

 

For ten years there was an annual Rosary Celebration, usually on the Sunday following the liturgical Feast of the Holy Rosary. When circumstances did not allow such Celebration in 2013, I simply turned to Our Lady and said that, if she wanted to have that celebration this year, she would have to arrange it all.  Well, we had a celebration and a unique one at that.

 

In July of that year a statue of Bl. John Paul II was donated to the Shrine by a Filipino couple. I recalled how the Blessed stated at the Polish Shrine of Calvary that there “the Mother of God nourished his heart.” I asked him to take our Shrine to heart because his teachings are the foundation of the spirituality of this Shrine. And as a sign that he would, I asked that he arrange that an appropriate icon of the Holy Face be available - a.s.a.p. I noticed that there was a space between the folded hands of the statue, so I wrote out what I requested, just in case I forgot the details. That note was placed between those hands and still remains there.

 

I had asked an artist to paint an icon of the Holy Face. I was frustrated when she did not produce it after two and a half years of waiting. Suddenly, within a couple of days of making that request of Pope John Paul II, I received an email from the artist stating that the icon would be completed in a couple of weeks. But when it was delivered, it was no longer that of the Holy Face. The artist has chosen another subject that did not relate to the papal teaching which directed this endeavor.

 

 In the very opening paragraph of his Apostolic Letter On the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pope John Paul II states: “With the Rosary, the Christian sits at the School of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the Face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love.” Furthermore, “To contemplate the Face of Christ, and to contemplate it with Mary, is the ‘program’ which I have set before the Church at the dawn of the third millennium, summoning her to put out into the deep on the sea of history with the enthusiasm of the new evangelization.” In his Regina Caeli reflection on 2 May 2010, Pope Benedict XVI indicated that “The Virgin Mary is the one who more than any other, contemplated God in the human face of Jesus… in Mary’s heart the mystery of the Face of Christ was preserved… From her, we can always learn to look at Jesus with love and faith, and to see in that human face the Face of God.”

 

The loss of the first icon had me contact a nationally recognized iconographer I knew for a long time in Connecticut. He was able to begin ‘writing’ the icon immediately. It would be the Glorious Face of Jesus. In this way the Paschal Mystery would be visibly commemorated in the Shrine. The Stations of the Cross are the carved Faces of the Suffering Christ. The Icon would be his Face in the victory of the Resurrection. The iconographer described it as “a very handsome piece, very simple and clean. The face is life-size in its scale.”

 

The iconographer, Marek Czarnecki, pointed out that “It is much more difficult to write one simple icon of the Face of Jesus, than to make a very complicated composition, with many figures. It's difficult not to project anything personal into it, so His face is not a mirror of the iconographer, but stays a window for everyone else to see, unclouded. It's not just a problem of technique. Icons must be open - accessible in their meaning, and attentive to the person praying in front of it.”

 

He used traditional materials for this Byzantine icon. “The icon is painted on a birch panel, covered with linen, on top of that is a primer made of chalk and marble dust, the gold is rose gold from Germany; it has a little copper in it to make it warm. The paint is made of egg yolks and pigments made from earths, clays and minerals. When the icon is finished, I soak it in linseed oil, and then apply a topcoat of copal varnish, the whole time saying “Lord have mercy, lord have mercy, lord have mercy”.

 

As for the payment, I recalled a friend who had offered to make a donation at the renovation of the Shrine in 2006, but which was not fulfilled. She gladly accepted the opportunity for this unique donation. All was providentially taken care of.

 

When the CT iconographer notified me that the icon would be available at the end of September, I was elated, especially when I realized it should be properly enthroned.

 

Quick arrangements were made for the Eleventh Rosary Celebration on October 13th, for its enthronement.  It also commemorated the tenth anniversary of the icon of Our Lady of South Carolina, originally blessed in 2003. This would all be celebrated in union with the consecration of the world to the Blessed Mother by Pope Francis, during the Marian Day of the Year of Faith.

 

What enhanced the celebration was the original hymn to the Holy Face that was introduced at the Enthronement. The verses follow the theme of the Holy Face through salvation history - from the first mention of it in the Old Testament, “Seek ye the Face of the Lord”, through the stages of the life of Christ as well as his Eucharistic Presence, concluding with an appeal to venerate the Holy Face, referring to several private revelations, notably to Sr. Mary St. Peter, a Carmelite in Tours, France and Bl. Maria Pierina of Italy.

 

Speaking for her Marian Prayer Group that frequents the Shrine, Elaine Colbert from Summerville SC summarized the entire occasion: “When you ask Our Blessed Lady for help, she doesn't hold back.  The Rosary Celebration was magnificent.  Thank you for letting us be apart of the heavenly event.  The Face of Jesus is breathtaking.”