Art glass mosaic fully visible after years of being hidden

From the Catholic Times
By Cathy Locher

Renovation work in 2006 at the then 55-year-old St. Mary Church in Taylorville revealed a surprise to many people. During a 1972 renovation after Vatican II, a handmade art glass mosaic of St. Joseph on the right side of the sanctuary had been entirely covered up, only to later be partially uncovered to balance a scaled down mosaic of the Blessed Mother on the other side of the sanctuary.

Now both repaired and fully restored to their original size, St. Joseph is depicted as a carpenter at a work bench with the child Jesus at his feet at a smaller work bench. A huge art glass mosaic of Christ, on the back sanctuary wall was also restored in the 2006 renovation.

“Tony Durbin, our ‘go to’ parishioner on parish history, put together a church photo collage. In a 1995 dated photo, you can see St. Joseph, and if you really looked close you could see the head of Jesus, but you didn’t know who it was, or what he was doing,” said Father Dan Willenborg, parochial vicar.

Parishioner Jane Frey, an artist who exhibits her oil paintings at the Old State Capitol Art Fair among other places, cleaned and restored the mosaics. “They took several feet off the Blessed Mother mosaic, and in so doing there was more damage on Mary’s side,” she said. “There was also quite a bit of damage to the Christ mosaic in the middle. But since the St. Joseph mosaic was entirely covered up, it actually fared better.”

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