In 1962 Franz Griesenbrock, a Dutch artist, created a Damien (in concrete) for our seminary in Simpelveld (the Netherlands), which from the beginning was named "Damianeum". The first location of the sculpture was the so-called "alley of consumption", a part of the park where the sick brothers could get fresh air and do their exercises. By 1963 tuberculosis in convents may have gone, but not the memory of a bad epoch.
The statue, which shows Damien protecting a leper, was moved first to another part of the park, next to a small pond, and then was dispatched to Lahnstein when the house in Simpelveld was sold. In Lahnstein Damien valiantly watched over the entrance to the Provincial House, even to having his feet washed in one of the great floods of the Rhine.
After that, came another move. Damien is now at the entrance to the Provincial House in Werne. where, since the feast of the Sacred Hearts in 2015, he welcomes those who live there and those who come to visit.
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06/17/2015