Stations of the Cross: Sculpture by Christine Bailey

“Christine’s Crosses”

by Cynthia Parks, Times-Union staff writer

Sunday, April 7, 1974

The article “Christine’s Crosses: Cotton Patch to Cathedral” tells the story of the sculptor Christine Bailey. During her lifetime, Bailey lent her massive religious figures to churches (often to St. John’s Cathedral) but never gifted them. The article says that she had an inclusive attitude about faith. She once said that she’d like to have the stations placed in Hemming Park (now James Weldon Johnson Park) so that people might see them on their way to work and know Christ.

Her son Jerome McLean gave the stations to St. John’s Cathedral as a memorial to his mother in 1974. That year, during Holy Week, his mother’s sculptures were displayed in Burwell Court for public visitation. Fifty years later, you are invited to see Bailey’s sculptures and walk the stations of the cross in Taliaferro Hall throughout the season of Lent and also during Holy Week.