Our Lady of Exile

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The statue is a reminder of the existence of the original Marian Column with a statue of the Immaculate Conception in the Old Town Square, erected in 1652 to commemorate the successful defense of Prague against the Swedish troops in 1648. The shadow of the column with a height of less than 14 meters also served as a time indicator when the so-called Prague Meridian showed at noon. The statue, whose author was Jan Jiří Bendl, was torn down by a senselessly passionate crowd on November 3, 1918. As a plea for atonement for this event, it was decided shortly thereafter, among other things, to make a new statue of the Virgin Mary. It happened in 1954 in Italy. In 1954, Alessandro Monteleone (1897 Tauranga - 1967 Rome) made a new sculpture from Carrara marble, reminiscent of the original form of the demolished sculpture, from the collections of his compatriots in exile. After being consecrated by the papal nuncio K. Micara in the Czech papal college in Nepomucen, Rome, it was erected on May 22, 1955 in the garden of the Czech St. Prokop Benedictine Abbey in Lisle near Chicago. In 1993, it was transported to Prague and erected on May 7, 1994 in the garden of the Strahov Monastery. On the cartouche in the middle of the pedestal is the inscription " Our Lady of Exile, pray for us ". Every first Saturday of the month, after the evening mass, pilgrimages are made to her from the Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Every year, the Marian walking pilgrimage through Prague starts here on the first Saturday in May.