The last restoration of Mary Help of Christiansthe head of the Salesian House of Cordoba, will go through a review process. The work carried out by Juan Jiménez and Pablo Porras between 2021 and 2022 did not please many faithful because it was about giving to the … picture one different appearancethe one it had at its origin, but not the one it has presented in recent decades.
María Auxiliadora is an image created in 1908 in the Barcelona Sarriá workshops. His appearance was similar to today’s, but not to what several generations knew, since in the 1960s the image maker Juan Martínez Cerrillo He carried out a procedure which gave him softer features, with a marked smile and a more rounded facial oval.
The intervention promoted from the summer of 2021 and which ended the following year, aimed to give the Virgin the original lookwith a longer face and a more serious expression. We also recovered, according to the sculptors, the polychromy original.
The restoration, however, did not please everyone, including a group of faithful who have continued to mobilize since, and especially since the failure of the restoration of María Santísima de la Esperanza Macarena, last June, which fortunately resulted in the intervention of Pedro Manzano.
At that time there were signature collections and even a canvas exhibited in the Plaza de Las Tendillas with the previous appearance of the image. This Sunday, the Provincial Council of Salesian Province Mary Help of Christians informed the Educational-Pastoral Community and the Salesian Family of the opening of an assessment of the intervention process carried out between the years 2021 and 2022.
Visit
The decision is adopted after the provincial visit carried out between December 1 and 4, 2025 by the Provincial, Fernando Miranda, coinciding with the opening ceremony of the 125 birthday of the Salesian house and school, which is celebrated during these months.
The process contains two measures. On the one hand, a evaluation commission multidisciplinary and independent, which will include qualified restorers, art historians, public institutions and representatives of the Church.
The commission will publish a report and also a file will compile information on the previous intervention.
From there a report on the current situation of the image, “taking into account heritage, historical and canonical criteria”. In addition, an information file will be opened to collect information on the process prior to the intervention.
With the results of the two reports, “a final solution“. The Salesians ask for “collaboration for a peaceful development” of the revision procedure, which begins now.
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