On 20th July 2012 the Oratory was graced by a visit from His Excellency the Most Reverend Archbishop Antonio Mennini, Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain. The occasion was the blessing of the new Calvary Chapel, which has recently been installed in the church under the organ loft, adjacent to the altar of Bl. John Henry Newman.

The Calvary figures, consisting of Crucifix, Our Lady, and St John the Evangelist, are the work of the Spanish master-sculptor Darío Fernández. Carved over the last two years in his studio in Seville, they caused a local sensation when displayed in Seville’s town hall after completion. They eventually arrived safely in London in some weeks ago, having survived severe storms en route in the Bay of Biscay.

Darío Fernández was the only living imaginero (an artist who not only sculpts but also paints and decorates his own figures) to have work included in the National Gallery’s acclaimed exhibition of The Sacred Made Real in 2009/2010. His contribution was a model of St John of the Cross, which revealed the different stages in the production of the highest quality Spanish polychromatic figures of the seventeenth century.

The Oratory Calvary constitutes a masterpiece of Spanish realism, which will surely become a focus of devotion and meditation on Our Lord’s Passion in this quiet corner of the church. The figures stand against a background of the city of Jerusalem, painted on canvas by the English artist Alan Dodd, and are protected by a carved classical railing copied from an altar rail in a Premonstratensian abbey in Swabia.

We must make a request for assistance in paying for this new chapel. The painting has been sponsored by a generous benefactor. To cover the cost of the figures and their installation (with lighting, etc.), we need to raise £53,000. All contributions will be very gratefully received. If you are able to make a donation, please mark it clearly ‘for the Oratory Calvary’. Cheques should be made out to ‘The London Oratory Charity’. Thank you.