She’s been waiting more than a year to get out of the shipping crate that transported her safely from Italy to the Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove.
Crews have been working since Tuesday, June 1, to place the Our Lady of La Vang statue in her shrine, on Thursday using a crane to secure her in place.
The statue of the Virgin Mary is standing on a cloud, dressed in a traditional Vietnamese ao dai and holding the baby Jesus; in the shrine, she is surrounded by trees representing the forest of La Vang where it is believed the Marian apparition appeared in 1798 to comfort persecuted Catholics in Central Vietnam.
The 12-foot-tall statue, weighing an estimated 16,000 pounds, is carved from Italian marble. The altar and cloud stand 6 feet.
A small group, including Bishop Kevin Vann who blessed the statue, was there Thursday to watch it be settled into place, officials with the Diocese of Orange said. A public dedication is expected next month.
