Sedes Sapientiae
Opposite the Front Door, on the Front Ambulacrum, stands this statue of Our Lady, Sedes Sapientiae.
Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom.
When passing the statue, professors and Divines would raise their birettas.
(Birettas were worn at all times in the ambulacra).
Lower ranks would salute the statue by bending their right arms at the elbow up to the shoulder.
To acknowledge the statue and the presence of Our Lady.
I remember that when our Science teacher, Mr (Father) Aidan Pickering, was discussing various rock types, he told us that this statue was made of alabaster and could easily by damaged by a finger-nail scratch; we were warned not to experiment with this!
1n 1950, when Pope Pius the Twelfth proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption, the whole College gathered in front of this statue of Our Lady to sing the Te Deum, the traditional thanksgiving hymn of the Church; maybe we also recited the fourth glorious mystery of the Rosary and sang Hail Queen of Heaven, a hymn written by Dr Lingard, a former professor at the College.
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