Courtesy of artists
Catholic art restorers see their work as a labor of love and a labor of faith. Arlene Miller’s Nativity set at St. Michael’s adorns the midnight Mass at the Rochester, New York, church. Sheila Lehman has transformed a vandalized Our Lady of Grace statue from St. Vincent’s in Los Angeles, a smaller Our Lady of Mount Carmel statue and a depiction of the 12th Station (all shown as before-and-after images). Also shown: A Pietà statue was restored by Mary Birkos.

Skilled artists are defying a ‘throwaway culture’ to renew the majesty of Catholic statues that draw hearts and minds to the beauty of holiness.