A Week in September

John Thomas Mullock, the bishop of St. John’s, recorded in his diary on December 4, 1856: “Received safely from Rome, a beautiful statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in marble, by Strazza. The face is veiled, and the figure and features are all seen.” Giovanni Strazza was a Milanese sculptor, and The Veiled Virgin is his most famous work. You can see it at the Presentation Convent next to the St. John the Baptist Cathedral Basilica, which looms over the city and welcomes ships sailing into the harbour through the Narrows.

It used to cost a dollar to see The Veiled Virgin. When I went in 2010, it was suppertime, and the nun at the front desk had a meal of beef and peas and potatoes but was happy enough to call another sister to show me to the sculpture, once I paid my loonie. The Veiled Virgin is of white Carrara marble, head and shoulders, hair braided; she is young, maybe a teenager; her eyes are shut, and the folds of a soft fabric seem to...