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| Our Lady of Stone |
After the procession Margaret returned to Belgium to solicit alms and procure some religious items not available in England for the convent at Stone. While she was away she received word that members of her Congregation motivated by local prejudice against devotional images removed the image of Our Lady from the chapel. This caused Mother Margaret great anxiety. She told her companions, “When they turned her out of the chapel, I told some of them they might stay away if they liked, but that Our Lady should never be turned out.” As soon as Mother Margaret returned the image was replaced in the chapel. Shown in a previous post entitled Processional Image of Our Lady, this statue known as Our Lady of Consolation is now kept in the heritage room at Stone surrounded by candles. A larger image of Our Lady known as Our Lady of Stone is enshrined in a lantern like encasement on the grounds at Stone. It is honored in May by a procession of local school children who crown Mother and Child with wreaths of flowers.
Drane, Augusta Theodosia (Mother Francis Raphael), Life of Mother Margaret Mary Hallahan: Foundress of the English Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena of the Third Order of St. Dominic, Longmans, Green and Co., New York, New York, 1929, p. 156-7
