To My Boys: September 28, 2020
Good morning!
Since so much hype has been rightfully placed on the new chapel under construction, I thought it would be a good idea to focus a little attention on the little round chapel that has served us so well for the last 40 years. On Friday, I wrote about the change made in the placement of the altar. Today and tomorrow, I would like to tell you about a Belen alumnus whose work is important to the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception.
Manuel Carbonell ‘36 is regarded among the greatest Cuban sculptors of his generation. He was born in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba. His family later moved to Cienfuegos where he attended El Colegio de Montserrat, the Jesuit elementary school. He later went to Havana where he attended el Colegio de Belén. It was here that he established a strong relationship with the Jesuits and made lifelong friends.
Carbonell lived to be 92 years of age and was a very prolific artist. Probably his most well-known work is the 53-foot bronze monument that is located midspan on the Miami River Bridge. Titled, “The Pillar of History and the Tequesta Family,” it is a graphical narration of the Tequesta Indians, Miami’s first inhabitants. Because of his love for the Jesuits and his alma mater, Carbonell sculpted four unique bronze pieces for the Belen chapel.
The first piece is the altar. It resembles a cave carved into a mountain. There are two possible interpretations. First, the cave can be understood as representing the birthplace of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, or Belen. It can also be understood as representing the cave of Manresa, the place where Ignatius of Loyola spent 11 months as a hermit writing his Spiritual Exercises before leaving on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
What is clear are the gold-plated letters JHS. This monogram represents the first three letters of the name of Jesus in Greek, IHS in Latin. In 1541, St. Ignatius adopted this monogram as the emblem for the Society of Jesus. Not so evident in the design of the altar is the wooden top. Carbonell was able to locate an old door from a chapel in the Cuban countryside and creatively transformed it for the altar.
The second piece or pieces are the two candlesticks on either side of the altar. Originally, the sculptor designed four candlesticks whose base would be the four symbols of the Evangelists as described in the books of Ezekiel (1:4-14) and Revelation (4:6-8): the eagle representing John, the bull representing Luke, the angel representing Matthew, and the lion representing Mark. The lion and the bull are found in the chapel, but Carbonell died before completing the work.
Tomorrow, I will write about the other two pieces sculpted for our chapel. It is a blessing to have such an important artist as an alumnus of the school. He loved the school so much that he wanted to be an integral part of the most important space in it. We can learn a lot from Maestro Carbonell and can take great inspiration in knowing that our talents can give great glory to God.
Auspice Maria,
BELEN JESUIT PREPARATORY SCHOOL
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: communications@belenjesuit.org
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: communications@belenjesuit.org
Belen Jesuit Preparatory School was founded in 1854 in Havana, Cuba, by Queen Isabel II of Spain. The task of educating students was assigned to the priests and brothers of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), whose teaching tradition is synonymous with academic excellence and spiritual discipline. In 1961, the new political regime of Cuba confiscated the school's property and expelled the Jesuit faculty. The School was re-established in Miami the same year, and over the next decade, continued to grow. Today, Belen Jesuit is situated on a 34-acre site in western Dade County, just minutes away from downtown Miami.