Renovated entrance of seminary features new statue of Bishop Bruté

A newly created bronze statue of the Servant of God Bishop Simon Bruté is featured at the recently renovated back entrance of Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis. (Submitted photo)

By Sean Gallagher

When participants in this year’s Bishop Bruté Days arrived at Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis on July 5, they were met by a renovated back entrance to the archdiocesan-operated seminary.

During the past 10 months, a $300,000 project created a large gate in the seminary’s enclosure wall and installed a decorative sidewalk that leads to Bishop Bruté’s now-prominent back entrance.

On June 26, Archbishop Charles C. Thompson blessed the new entrance, including a new bronze statue of the Servant of God Bishop Simon Bruté that serves as the centerpiece of the project.

(Related story: Record number of youths open their hearts to the priesthood and the Eucharist at Bishop Bruté Days)

“It was already our entrance,” said Father Joseph Moriarty, Bishop Bruté’s rector. “We just wanted to dress it up so that when people came, they would know that they enter the building there. Now we think we’ve accomplished that, especially with the break in the wall.”

The life-size statue of Bishop Bruté is the creation of sculptor Gianfranco Tassara of Milwaukee. The commission of the statue and other work on the seminary’s new entrance was made possible by a generous gift of the late Virginia Marten. Another anonymous donor funded work done to the bells of the seminary’s chapel.

Father Moriarty foresees seminarians walking by the statue of the seminary’s namesake as they go to and from classes at nearby Marian University.

The priest said Bishop Bruté “gave himself to a noble purpose” when he answered the call to the priesthood, when he came to America as a missionary and when he was called to Indiana to serve as the state’s first bishop.

“That’s what I see these boys doing,” said Father Moriarty. “They don’t know if God is calling them yet. But they’re willing to come together for a noble purpose, namely God’s will for their lives. This is exemplified by the life and history of Simon Bruté.”
 

(For more information on Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis, visit www.bishopsimonbrute.org.) †