Shrine of St. Therese - Juneau, Alaska - Outdoor Stations of the Cross on Waymarking.com

Surrounding the Shrine of St. Therese chapel and built in the same style as the Chapel walls--mortar and beach stone--are fifteen Station of the Cross structures. Fourteen of these formations were constructed under the supervision of Doc Holden, the stone mason who orchestrated the construction of the Shrine Chapel, and the fifteenth form was completed by Greg Mallinger, a local Juneau stone mason, and his family in 1992.

Initially, in the 1940's, each of the Station forms contained a picture protected by glass of one of the scenes of Christ's journey to crucifixion. The damp climate penetrated these images and in 1966, a plaster cast set of figures were set in place. It was at this time that a corpus of Christ was placed on the 16 foot concrete cross that had been erected on the rise to the west of the Chapel. Again, the salt water, damp climate, and some vandalism began to take its toll of the cast station material.

In 1986, a young junior high school student, J.J. Sweigart, was thoroughly enjoying the artistic instructions of R.D. Robinson, a local Juneau artist who was participating in the Juneau Public School District's "Artist in Residence" program. One day while working on classroom art, Sweigart approached Robinson about repairing the damaged station sculpture at the Shrine, for some of the station scenes were broken or missing.

Not forgetting the young student's comments, Robinson visited Shrine Island and after seeing the poor condition of the sculptures he decided that he would not attempt to try to refurbish the deteriorated works, but that he would offer an alternative. His proposal would consist not of repairing, but of redoing the entire set of sculptures, no small undertaking indeed. After putting together a portfolio of his past work and a plan for 14 new station scenes, Robinson met with the Shrine Committee and shared his ideas.

Realizing that the sculptures needed considerable attention, and yet fully aware of the very limited Shrine budget which was earmarked for leaking roofs and facility repairs, the members of the committee endorsed Robinson's idea only if donors for the project could be found. After placing a couple of phone calls and sitting down at table with the prospective contributors, two anonymous donors funded the complete plan at a price that was slightly less than $40,000. The signing of the contract took place in December of 1986 and Robinson began working on the sculptures project which was spread over the next two and a half years.

In reminiscing about this accomplishment, Robinson called the project one of the "most intricately detailed sculpturing" works he’d ever done. His goal for this extensive project was to achieve a three-dimensional effect that would make viewers feel as though they could reach around each image. To add to that effect, R.D. created facial expressions that present the figures as though they are making eye contact with each other and with their viewers, you, the audience.

Sharing how he had visited the Holy Land, researched the Scriptures for a Biblical basis for the passion of Jesus before designing each setting, and studying in depth the anatomy of the human person so that the intricate details could be included in the sculptures, Robinson related that, "It was a challenge to do the pieces since the scenes are so very relentless. There is a great deal of facial detail in each scene, with Christ in agony in so many. It is a monumental challenge to sculpt sadness, contempt, all the wounds, and just a host of human emotions in sculpture."

Artist: Doc Holden, Greg Mallinger, R.D. Robinson Date: c1940, 1989 Materials: mortar and beach stone with cultured alabaster Website: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Enjoy your visit, tell your story and post a picture.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   06/23/2012 buffalohiker visited it 07/30/2003 Chasing Blue Sky visited it

View all visits/logs