Dominican Sisters posing with the life-size St Dominic statue in Tagatay Phillipines which inspired the sculpture for Double Parish, Our Lady of the Rosary Church. Photo: Supplied.
By Amanda Murthy
Paying tribute to the saint who fervently prayed the Rosary, a life size statue all the way from Saigon, Vietnam now stands tall at the entrance of the new Rosary Community Centre at Doubleview Parish, Our Lady of the Rosary Church.
The custom made statue sanctioned by former Dominican Parish Priest Father Peter Toan Nguyen OP, weighs more than half-tonne, and was inspired by a much admired rendition of the saint he had seen at a Convent in Tagaytay, Philippines.
Dominican Sister Maria Du Nguyen from the Dominican Sisters’ Convent in Saigon, headed the team that supervised the creative process from Vietnam.
She said the statue from Da Nang was sculpted with the best marble and by a leading sculptor named Le Phat.
“We wanted to choose the best marble from Vietnam to make St Dominic, and so we did.”
“Da Nang was chosen as a location to create this masterpiece, as is dubbed as the “carving village” for its’ exceptional quality of stone-cutting and sculptures,” she said.
Sr Nguyen added that the statue that took three months to sculpt, one month to ship to port and another month to arrive at the Parish.
Last Sunday, the statue and Community Centre were commissioned after a Mass lead by Fr Anthony Walsh OP, Prior Provincial of the Dominican Order in Australia and New Zealand, based in Melbourne.
Parish Priest Fr Hoang compares height with the St Dominic statue which was officiated with a newly built Rosary Community Centre at Our Lady of the Rosary Church. Photo: Supplied.
He was joined by six other Dominican Priests, which included Parish Priest Peter Hoang OP and Fr Nguyen who flew in from Melbourne.
The Community Centre is a part of a new complex that includes a Dominican Priority, meeting spaces and offices.
Around 150 parishioners at the grand opening of the Community Centre also witnessed Fr Walsh ceremoniously placing a timber walking staff into the hands of St Dominic during a blessing of the statue.
St Dominic is a Patron Saint of Astronomers, the Dominican Republic, and the innocent who are falsely accused of crimes. He founded the Dominicans, known as the Order of Preachers, in Toulouse, France, in the early 13th century.