The World's Most Beautiful Places
A view of St Joseph Catholic Church in the Butchertown neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky. In the picture St Joseph sits below a cross with the baby Jesus on his shoulder. According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. He is considered to be the patron saint of workers and the sick, and was declared by Pope Pius IX to be the protector of the Catholic Church.
Around Easter time you will often find Christian crosses draped in a white cloth. This act symbolizes Jesus’ burial shroud, his crucifixion and resurrection. Typically the crosses are draped in this fashion from Eastern Sunday through Ascension Day in May. This particular cross was seen at a church in Aurora, Indiana.
The Christ of the Ohio statue was created by Herbert Jogerst, a German prisoner of war during World War II. Incarcerated at Camp Breckenridge (Morganfield, Kentucky) in 1943, Jogerst returned to Germany in 1948, but had a difficult time after the war finding work. Having gotten to know the chaplin at Camp Breckenridge, Herbert reached out. The chaplin, impressed by his work was able to arrange the commission of several statues for St. Meinrad Archabbey, that today stand above the entrance to the Archabbey’s church. They include statues of St. Benedict, St. Scholastica, and the Lady of Einsiedeln Statue with Christ Child, also known as the Black Madonna. Einsiedeln Abbey in Switzerland is the founding monastery of St Meinrad.
The Christ of the Ohio statue was commissioned while Herbert was working at St. Meinrad, by a visiting doctor who wanted a statue for his home. That statue was eventually purchased by the City of Troy, Indiana, when the doctor’s home went up for sale. The Christ of the Ohio Statue was dedicated May 1, 1957. Herbert Jogerst died in 1993.