When the Sisters of Mercy sadly left Greyfriars Convent Elgin, they bequeathed to the monks of Pluscarden their processional Statue of Our Lady.
A set of photographs taken in 1952 record how this Statue used to be used with the Catholic children of Elgin each year in the month of May.
At Pluscarden the Statue found a home in the Infirmary, and was used, on occasion, at the annual Diocesan Pilgrimage to the Abbey in late June.
Then in early May this year, one of the Nashville Dominican Sisters now at Greyfriars Convent looked to heaven and said, “Blessed Mother, please send me a beautiful, portable, free statue of you today which I can use with the children at St. Sylvester’s School when I go to say the Rosary with them.”
As it chanced, that very afternoon one of the monks of Pluscarden unexpectedly knocked at the door of the Convent. His aim was to ask if the Dominican Sisters would like to host the large Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima, currently touring the country, either before or after it had been at Pluscarden. Yes, they would, and will!
In the course of that conversation, the Sisters' longer term need for a smaller, portable Statue came up. And so it was that Pluscarden Abbey officially gave the Greyfriars Statue of Our Lady back to its original home.
And in warm sunshine, once again, that Statue was used this year in a May Procession with the Catholic children of Elgin. Sixty five years separate the two groups of photographs, but the Faith and the devotion are the same, thank God!
The Dominican Sister asked for a Statue, but she got two! And the Pluscarden monks are very happy that they were able to be a link in that chain!