Statue of Mother Mary Lange
By Sister Virginie Fish, OSP

Fifteen years before the cause of Mother Lange was formally introduced (1976), Theodore (Teddy) Wilson, hospitalized, seriously ill and anticipating heart surgery, was given a relic of Mother Lange. Mr. Wilson left the hospital with surgery deferred and his health inexplicably improved. Teddy, had been ardently devoted not only to the living Oblate Sisters, but even more so to their deceased foundress, Mother Mary Lange. In gratitude, Teddy commissioned a replica of the statue located in the Sulpician’s basement chapel (Chapelle Basse) of the old St. Mary’s Seminary on Paca Street.
Like the original, the statue of Mother Lange was carved out of lindenwood by the same artist, Giacomo Vincenzo Mussner of Ortisei, Italy. The statue was duly installed in the Oblate’s motherhouse chapel. Father Sullivan, curator of the Chapel of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgini Mary on Paca Street commented: “The response Mary gave at the time of the Annunciation, ‘I am the servant of the Lord,’ also epitomized the life of Mother Lange who served the Lord faithfully until her death.”
Theodore (Teddy) Wilson died May 26, 1996 of unrelated causes.