A hundred-year-old painting of St. Columba has been donated to a church in Derry named after him. The painting had been hanging in the Kivlehan family’s home for over forty years and had been in their possession for 99 years, but now, they decided to donate it to St. Columba's ‘Long Tower’ Church.
It was presented by Mr Vincent Kivlehan and unveiled in a small ceremony to mark to feast day of the saint, who is patron of the city.
The painting – entitled simply ‘St. Columba’ - was painted by Frank Schlindwein in 1907 and presented to Mr Kivlehan's great-grandfather, John Rooney, in 1909 to thank him for helping to build the Long Tower Church.
Mr Kivlehan said the clergy of the parish “couldn't believe it” when they were first shown the work of art.
“This massive canvas hung in my mother's house in the Bogside since 1968 – it was up on the wall beside the stairs for all that time," he explained.
The decision to donate the painting to parish was made by his mother, Kathleen.
“It was presented to her grandfather in 1909 – he was the clerk of works in the city - upon completion on the church by way of gratitude for his efforts”.
Mrs Kivlehan said she even thought about having the painting put in storage under her bed because it was so big but instead, they had hung it on one of the larger walls in their house in the Bogside.
"They said it would have been ruined if I had rolled it up and put it under the bed,” she remarked.
"But it's great to reunite it with the church, it's exactly what my grandfather would have wanted.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce