Kindly donated by the Sisters of Providence, their statue of Christ of the Sacred Heart has been installed in St Peter & St Paul’s church, Lincoln, during August 2025

^{Source: St Peter & St Paul’s}

The sisters have been resident in Lincoln since 1901, moving to the convent at The Mount in 1908, therefore the statue is a significant artefact of Lincoln’s catholic heritage.

The statue was originally sited in a niche above the altar in the Sisters of Providence Convent chapel:

This particular cast of statue No 8402 Sacré-Cœur de Jésus, by Maison Raffl probably dates to 1924 when the trademark “Le Statue Religieuse Paris” in a rectangular cartouche was registered and the year the new chapel at the convent was constructed.

The design itself is much earlier and could be by a number of fine sculptors of religious art whose studios were adopted by Masin Raffl (founded in 1796) throughout the nineteenth century. The following images show the 1907 catalogue cover listing the many artists whose work was reproduced and the entry for the design of our statue:

Since the Sisters of Providence moved out of their home on the Mount in Lincoln, the statue had been languishing in temporary accommodation, awaiting restoration and a new home:

This year Canon Geoffrey Hunton, parish priest of St Peter & St Paul’s, took up the challenge to honour the legacy of the original convent. Ormsby’s Memorials were commissioned to undertake the restoration which was funded by private donation and a parish coffee morning. An engraved brass plaque acknowledging the gift from the Sisters of Providence and their place in Lincoln’s Catholic history, is displayed on the pedestal.

On completion, a team of parishioners were asked to provide an appropriate solution for the setting of the statue within the church. Being approximately 3 meters tall on an original oak pedestal, the best physical location was identified as the corner adjacent to the confessional rooms. However, this was on the one hand a utilitarian area with lots of pipes and wiring concealed behind panelling or in surface mounted conduits, with different levels and surfaces and, on the other hand a sensitive area, being a window between the Lady Chapel and the sanctuary: a backdrop which accommodated all these factors was required. It was decided that a simple textile panel would provide an elegant solution. Of course seemingly simple solutions are more easily imagined than executed!

The difficulties presented by the architecture and layout of the church were notable: a design which provided a complementary backdrop, respected the visibility from the Lady Chapel (a matching cream panel verso), the lines of the mid-20th century modernist architecture of the church itself and enabled access for future maintenance, was devised by Ted Coatsworth, Alison Guz, Val Trees and Lorraine Roberts.

The statue is now in place (see following images) bearing a plaque recognising the gift from the Sisters of Providence, near the entrance to the confessional rooms, adjacent to the maquette statue of Our Lady of Lincoln, with a sanctuary candle and a candle stand nearby: a sensitive depiction of Christ placed so as Instruction to Ordinaries on Sacred Art, Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, 30 June 1953.