The tour of an icon that the late Pope John Paul II entrusted to the university students of the world wound up at the University of Western Australia this week.
By Robert Hiini
Catholic students and staff at the University of Notre Dame (UNDA), Fremantle, and the state’s four public universities have, in the past week, venerated and prayed with the Sedes Sapientiae (Seat of Wisdom) Icon of Mary and Jesus – a mosaic created by renowned Jesuit artist, Fr Marko Ivan Rupnik.
The icon was welcomed to UNDA on August 17 with a special liturgy and also made its way to Murdoch, Curtin, and Edith Cowan (ECU). Fr Armando Carandang, the coordinator of the WA leg of the icon’s tour and chaplain to UWA, joined ECU chaplain Fr Kenneth Asaba, students, staff and choir for their Mass last Sunday to celebrate the visit of the icon.
Fr Carandang told Mass-goers that the icon is a powerful witness to the example of the first Christian, Mary.
"She is the monstrance. She is the tabernacle. She is not the professor but she is the Seat of Wisdom on which the professor sits," Fr Armando Carandang said.
UNDA’s Dr Angela McCarthy, an expert on religious art and iconography, gave a lecture on the icon for its visit to the UWA on August 24.
The following day, it was publicly venerated by Auxiliary Bishop Don Sproxton on UWA’s Oak Lawn; a ceremony attended by students and friends of UWA’s chaplaincy.
The icon will head to South Australia next to visit universities in Adelaide.
