Statues of Our Lady of Prompt Succor help shrine

With the 200th anniversary of the Ursuline nuns praying to Our Lady of Prompt Succor for her intercession to win the Battle of New Orleans approaching in 2015, sacristan Thais Carriere wants the Uptown shrine in her honor to be in mint condition.
    “We’d love the chapel to be beautiful and in decent shape for our 200th anniversary,” Carriere said.  “I think it will be a beautiful way to show Our Lady we love her.”
     It wasn’t long ago when water dripped inside the shrine on State Street when it rained. Thanks to generous donors, the shrine’s roof has recently been repaired, Carriere said, but there are other issues at the old church – dedicated in 1924.
    “We need a new sound system, we have termite issues and the front of the church is in bad shape and in need of repair,” Carriere, church sacristan since 2007, said. “It’s a work in progress.”
    No matter what issue arises at the shrine, Carriere said Our Lady of Prompt Succor plants a seed in someone who comes forward to help the Ursuline nuns keep the shrine going.
    Such was the case with the garden statues now sold in the shrine’s gift shop.
Lifelike garden statue
    Years ago, someone had asked Carriere if a garden statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor was available. At the time, the shrine only sold a small statue from Italy.  Carriere happened to mention the conversation to Gene Hymel, who has a special devotion to Our Lady of Prompt Succor and is a member of the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Prompt Succor.
    Hymel had noticed such a statue in the yard of Gloria Lachin Mouledoux and inquired where she got it. It was her brother Albert Lachin who had sculpted and cast a stone statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor for family and friends in the 1950s or ’60s. Hymel contacted her nephew, Tommy Lachin, who now runs the family architectural ornaments business. He agreed to make a new mold from an original statue at his mom Lorraine’s house.
    And, in 2012, the shrine began selling 27-inch tall white stone statues of Our Lady of Prompt Succor made to help defray needed repairs. Each is numbered in a series and sold with a certificate of authenticity.
    “Our Lady works in very strange ways sometimes,” Carriere said.
Adorned in gold
    The statue project didn’t stop there. When the statue sale was originally announced at the shrine during Mass, Mireya and Warren Goodwyne were in attendance. Their two daughters graduated from Ursuline Academy, and Mireya, originally from Panama, and Warren attend Saturday Mass at the shrine. Mireya Goodwyne has a strong devotion to the Catholic faith and Mary, in particular, and lives her faith by attending daily Mass.
    The Goodwynes were going through a rough time – their 5-year-old granddaughter Gabriella had been diagnosed with cancer – and were praying for a miracle at the shrine. They heard the announcement about the statues two weeks before Gabriella died in August 2012.
    Carriere had reserved a statue for them in the first edition of 10. When it arrived three weeks later, it was number 5, which was Gabriella’s age. They knew it wasn’t a coincidence.
    “It was Our Lady of Prompt Succor,” Warren Goodwyne said.
    Mireya Goodwyne decided she wanted hers painted and took on the task, without ever taking an art lesson. She said she told God that she would paint statues for others to help the shrine, and asked the Holy Spirit for guidance.
    “For a lady who knew nothing about painting, it’s remarkable,” Carriere said about the painted statue.
    The painted Mary sat in the sacristy for a few months before anyone really took notice. In the meantime, the Goodwynes had visited Sister Dulce, a Mercedarian nun from Texas who lives in Baton Rouge and has a healing ministry, to pray for healing. Sister Dulce invited them to repair and repaint six statues she had in her chapel.
    “I wasn’t going to tell her no,” Mireya Goodwyne said. “She’s a saint on earth and helping a lot of people.”
    Mireya and Warren Goodwyne worked as a team – she painted and he repaired – and learned shading and other techniques to make the statues lifelike. After that project was completed, orders for the painting of the Our Lady of Prompt Succor statue began. The Goodwynes donate their services to the shrine.
    “To paint the statues is an honor and a blessing,” Mireya Goodwyne said. “When I paint this statue, I feel this love. People tell me this statue looks like it was painted with love, and it is. I hope when they see the statue it increases their faith. The Blessed Mother is miraculous.”
    In addition to painting the statues, they also design crowns for it. Warren bends and solders the crown, and Mireya adorns them with stones modeled after the original jeweled crown placed on Our Lady of Prompt Succor every Jan. 8 on her feast day. Copper from shrine’s gutters when the roof was repaired is being used for the crowns. Warren also adds a cross on the globe held by baby Jesus.
Prayer answered
    Carriere sees the garden statues as a fulfillment of a wish by Ursuline Sister Damian Aycock, a former shrine sacristan and prioress. “She always thought that our lady should be represented in every house.”
     Fifth six of the statues have been sold so far and shipped them throughout the United States to benefit the shrine. Unpainted statues are $300; painted ones are $375. The set of crowns for Mary and Jesus are $130 (add $30 for additional jewels). Smaller, 12-inch statues from Italy, sell for $55 or $100 with crowns.
    Carriere said many think of our lady in times of hurricanes, but she is responsible for more than that: healings (spiritual and physical), marriages, religious vocations.
    “We call on her for protection for so many things,” Carriere said. “Our lady has played such a significant part in answering people’s prayers.  … The Ursulines have always been quiet about it, but it is important. This is a national shrine, and the Ursulines are a determined and accomplished group of nuns who feel God is here for everybody.”
    Carriere would love to have a perfect shrine to pay tribute to our lady by the 200th anniversary celebration – Jan. 8, 2015 – of her intercession in the Battle of New Orleans. She, like many others, have found solace at the shrine.
    “When I started coming here 20-plus years ago, I would have never have thought it would be such a big part of my life,” Carriere said. “This became home. I know many feel the same way, and many vocations have come from here when gentlemen pray to make up their minds. Our Lady has been busy.”