Dedication of Mary Statue Marks New Era for Campus Milestone

It’s the fulfillment of a dream that began close to 70 years ago.

In 1954, Rockhurst University students offered to raise funds for a statue of Mary on campus and an accompanying grotto for prayer. The statue was funded and Mary was placed on a stone cruciform for the time being, but the rest of the project proved difficult to fund.

In 2018, the idea for a grotto dedicated to Mary — one away from the foot traffic of the Kinerk Commons, in a more prayerful environment — resurfaced as plans emerged for the renovation of Sedgwick Hall and some of the limestone from the building would be removed.

“We loved that idea, and it stayed with us, we talked to the architects about it,” said Mary Mooney Burns, vice president of advancement. “But like the class of 1954, we didn’t have the money,”

That is until a friend of the University, Rosemary Kilker, made a gift to make the grotto possible in honor of the connection she and her late husband, Bob, had to the University and the Jesuits.

“This is a woman who grew up adjacent to campus, called this campus her playground,” Burns said. “She’s very proud to be able to make this happen.”

Last Friday, the University dedicated this new sacred space, due to be completed soon and expected to be fully open next semester. Located in a greenspace between Conway and Massman halls on a hill looking northeast, the grotto will house the Mary statue in a stone enclosure, inside of which are candles and kneelers to aid in prayerful reflection. The statue will now serve as a place of solace and prayer, while its former location can continue to serve as a place of gathering on campus.

Every detail of this new grotto has a purpose, said the Rev. Thomas B. Curran, S.J., University president. The statue of Mary faces out, an invitation for intercession on behalf of the community. The grotto design incorporates limestone from the Sedgwick Hall renovation. Even the short, winding path to the grotto is intended to evoke the journeys many make every day to shrines in places like Lourdes and Fatima. A pilgrimage, after all, is about the journey, not the destination.

“Literally here on campus, this is being constructed in a way you have to be intentional and take a pilgrimage into the grotto,” he said.