A NEW WALK-THROUGH experience at the Christ Cathedral campus that tells the story of the life of Jesus and the Virgin Mary will soon debut.
The Marian Gardens will have a public blessing ceremony starting at 4 p.m. on May 29, with Bishop Kevin Vann presiding over the Mass that starts at 5:15 p.m.
More than 1,000 VIPs, donors and guests from around the world are expected to attend the event, which will also feature dancing and music.
The $3.6-million project, located behind the campus’ Our Lady of La Vang Shrine, is a unique combination of art, architecture and landscaping in a quiet, serene setting. It consists of four areas totaling about 3,500 square feet and can accommodate individuals or small groups.
Each garden is devoted to one category of the Mysteries of the Rosary: Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious. Within each garden are five pieces of artwork that depict the various mysteries.
All 20 pieces of the sacred art were hand-crafted in the Peruvian Andes by skilled artisans from Artesanos Don Bosco, a Catholic Church-affiliated nonprofit.
They were done in mosaic, fusion glass, copper and bronze panels, and botticino limestone panels.
The mysteries include when the Angel Gabriel first appeared to the Virgin Mary to announce that she would give birth to Jesus, the wedding at Cana when Jesus turned water into wine, the crucifixion and death of Jesus, and when Mary is crowned as Queen of Heaven and Earth.
Another design detail embedded in the walking paths of the gardens are pieces of crushed glass in colors that exemplify the Biblical stories being told. For example, in Sorrowful Mysteries, red and burgundy glass is present — colors that represent the pool of blood from Jesus’ sacrifice for all mankind.
The Marian Gardens were first announced in December 2016 as part of the La Vang project for Christ Cathedral’s Marian Court, which is located northeast of the cathedral. The first phase of the project was the Our Lady of La Vang Shrine dedicated in 2021.
Groundbreaking for the Marian Gardens, the second phase of the La Vang project, began in November 2022.
“While the Our Lady of La Vang Shrine is for Masses and other large celebrations, the Marian Gardens are serene. It’s a park-like prayer area,” said Elysabeth Nguyen, CEO of the OLLV Foundation, which has managed the fundraising and construction for the entire La Vang project.
“We hope and pray that Catholics, and people of all faiths, will find comfort and solace in the Marian Gardens, learning more and becoming moved by the life of Jesus and our Blessed Mother.”
The Marian Gardens were designed by a priest committee, with other initial input from Aaron Torrence of Culver Citybased Torrence Architects. Further design work and completion was by David Pfeifer, AIA, LEED, AP of San Diego-based domusstudio architecture.
“Domusstudio designs places of gathering and worship for different faiths all over the world,” Pfeifer said. “The common thread of all those spaces is that people visit them to tap into their higher calling and find commonality between themselves. Christ Cathedral’s Marian Gardens will serve those important roles as individuals and groups experience and move through the four unique spaces. We hope this unique combination of art, architecture and landscaping will heighten the senses and be a source of reverent inspiration.”
In addition to the Marian Gardens, Christ Cathedral has built its own version of the Garden of Gethsemane, named after the garden in Jerusalem, where Jesus was arrested before his crucifixion. Like the real place in Israel, Christ Cathedral’s Garden of Gethsemane contains mature olive trees. The cathedral’s 70-year old trees were purchased from Visalia, California.
The Garden of Gethsemane contains a walking path, benches and a statue of Jesus praying. The statue was made of marble from Carrara, Italy — the same marble used for the Our Lady of La Vang statue — and it looks at the Blessed Sacrament in Christ Cathedral’s chapel. Symbolically, the placement of this Jesus statue puts Jesus centered between His earthly mother to His right (the Virgin Mary, as depicted in the Our Lady of La Vang statue) and His heavenly father inside the cathedral.