Upper Midwest Jesuits | Chicago-Detroit Province

Our Lady Queen of Peace Statue

In October 2011, a 10-foot statue of Our Lady Queen of Peace (OLQP) was placed at the entrance of OLQP Educational Centre in Dodoma, Tanzania to welcome visitors.  Fr. Martin Connell, SJ, headmaster of St. Peter Claver High School, had a design in mind for a statue and commissioned sculptor, Patrick Loti, a Ugandan artist specializing in religious art to bring his idea to life.  Our Lady is depicted as a proud African woman who stands tall despite the trials that beset her.  She is holding a happy child, Jesus, who holds on to his mother even as he holds out his hand in an ambiguous gesture of welcoming or giving.

In his blog, Crosshairs of Providence, Fr. Connell affirms, “Too often we get so concerned about goodness and truth that we forget the importance of beauty.”  Funding for this statue, as well as a life-sized carved wooden crucifix for the chapel at SPCHS, was made possible by the extraordinary generosity of a friend of Fr. Connell’s in California.

Our Lady Queen of Peace Statue Located at the Entrance of the Campus