“This symbol speaks to us personally!”
Chiara Principe is an Italian artist. She has always had a passion for art and design. She attended an art academy and later on she went to an art school where she learned different techniques for applied art. Her most recent work is centered in numismatics and goldsmith. She received the task of creating the model of the Unity Cross to be reproduced for the pilgrims that will come to the Jubilee celebrations in Schoenstatt and Rome. We visited her in her workshop and she shared with us her experiences of faith as an artist and of her work with the Unity Cross.
“What impressed me the most from the beginning was the way Fr. Gerardo (Cárcar) and Fr. Patricio (Moore) spoke about this cross. I could tell that this is a symbol that speaks to them personally.” From that moment on, her purpose has been to express in detail the depth Schoenstatt’s spirituality with her work. She explains how, little by little, she grew in the knowledge of its meaning and this helped her in her work with the cross.
During the realization process, Chiara visited the Shrine in Belmonte and said that for her was “a beautiful experience to be able to get in to that shrine and to know that it is identical to every other shrine in the world. It is amazing to see that between the different members of the movement there is a profound and concrete connection that express itself in this union of symbols and images.”
For Chiara, her work as an artist is about harnessing the talent that God gave her and that so many people helped her develop. “One of the first things that was clear to me was that what you know how to do is what God put in your heart, and you have to believe in that, even if is not easy sometimes.” That is why she tries to glorify God in everything she does, convinced that art is an expression of what you carry inside of you and that when you have the Lord inside you, He comes out in everything you do. Even if you are not working on a religious project, she says that “when the work has something of mine, even if is just my handiwork, I belong to the Lord and that is why He is in everything I do.”
Religious objects are the subjects she likes the most and on which she has worked the longest because they are not only art works, but a way of meditation as well. “I even have the chance to work on myself, to discover new things, to go deeper. I am really thankful for this because I understand that not everybody gets this chance.”
“Working with this cross has been different because I had never seen a cross before that has Mary in it too, and this made an impact from the beginning.” From that moment on, Chiara started to think about the cross, about the mystery of the union between Christ and the Blessed Mother, but also in how we are called to join Jesus on the cross, to be within that mystery, to be united in a closer embrace in following Christ. “For me this work has been an occasion of profound meditation, of meditating about this great and beautiful mystery that I try to understand more and better.”
The Unity Cross is an expression of our missionary commitment to the Church; it marks our mission for the second century of Schoenstatt. All pilgrims that come to Schoenstatt and Rome will receive a replica of this missionary cross. All those who are not able to participate from the festivities in Schoenstatt and Rome will be able to acquire them for €5.00 through the national contact person or through other pilgrims. For more information contact us: schoenstatt.roma@gmail.com