China restoration expert changes mission after volunteer experience with parish statues

Friday, Oct. 17, 2014

DRAPER — Catherine Holt, a china restoration expert and member of Saint John the Baptist Parish, has a new mission: She wants to restore and preserve Catholic statues and religious pieces of art to return them back to parishes, chapels and private devotionals. 

Previously, the majority of her work was restoring porcelain and china pieces.

She developed a passion for the statues after volunteering to repair eight religious statues that had been smashed by vandals who broke into Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in 2013. 

When Holt returned the statues to Our Lady of Lourdes Parish during a Jan. 5 Mass, Father Javier Virgen told her she had “brought joy back into the church,” and that the statues “looked better than they had before,” he said.

These pieces of art are “expressions of faith meant to serve as visual reminders of the Holy Family and the saints, and also are intended to draw the soul in deeper into prayer and into the mysteries of our faith, said Holt. 

Holt also has repaired six other statues that were donated to Our Lady of Lourdes Parish. “One woman heard about the vandalism and wanted to donate five statues to the parish, but they needed to be repaired first,” said Holt. “Another woman from Peru asked me to repair a statue of Saint Jude so she could also donate it to the Magna parish.”

If people or parishes can’t afford to have statues repaired, they can “have them sponsored,” said Holt. “That is how a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was repaired for Saint Therese of the Child Jesus Parish in Midvale. The statue had been sitting without arms in the parish for years. To repair it, I had to borrow the arms from a statue at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Salt Lake City, and make a mold. I thought at first I was going to have to hand-fabricate the arms, but the arms are removable.” 

“Catherine did an amazing job restoring the statue,” said Reuben Martinez, a St. Therese of the Child Jesus parishioner, adding that David Velarde built a stand for the statue, which now is displayed in the church.

After hearing how Holt could restore porcelain and china, another woman brought Holt a Sacred Heart plaque to be repaired. When the woman was a child, she remembered her parish priest telling her family to pray the rosary every day for world peace, said Holt. “So every day this family would kneel before this plaque and pray the rosary. The woman inherited the plaque, but it fell and broke into many pieces. She brought it to me and I was able to restore it, make a mold, and make two more for her siblings.”

Holt would like to be able to rescue and restore other statues and religious items that are being stored in church basements or people’s homes, she said. 

“It is my goal to maintain the original version of the statues or pieces,” said Holt. “Restoration most commonly involves repairing chipped paint, missing fingers, hands or feet. If a statue has been over-painted, I can remove layers of paint to determine its original color. The statues usually are plaster, marble or wood. These statues have adorned churches for generations; they are cherished symbols of our faith.”

Catherine Holt can be reached at saltlakechinarepair.com.