Prayerful gathering at the Grotto, 1961
During 1946 the Loreto community organised for the building of the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes and the landscaping of the surrounding gardens. The grotto was the inspiration of Mother Magdalen O’Hagan, who from 1942 to 1949 was the Superior at Loreto Toorak. Mother Magdalen commissioned Arthur Fleischmann, a Polish doctor and sculptor, to design and construct the statue of Our Lady. The sandstone grotto was a replica of the one at Lourdes but on a reduced scale. Fleischmann’s statue of Our Lady was constructed in a new media: plastic. In 1950 it was moved to the verandah of the mansion, overlooking the junior school, to protect it from weathering and a new one, donated by the Toorak parish priest, Reverend Walter Ebsworth, was placed in the grotto. The grotto became a special centre during the Queen of May procession and celebrations, when the Children of Mary wore their white veils, blue ribbons and cloaks and each girl carried a flower to place at the feet of the statue. It was also the stage for annual nativity plays.
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Consecration of the Children of Mary,
1940
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Children of Mary, 1940
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Children of Mary, 8 December 1946
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Children of Mary, 1962
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Children of Mary, 1942
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