Garden Details
Garden Details
This is a city garden, of flowers, plants and trees (not vegetables), with walkway bricks dedicated to victims of violence and their perpetrators, as well as former prison inmates who worked on the garden, to foster healing and forgiveness for the violence in Philadelphia and beyond. People come to sit and pray in the garden, a meditation place in the midst of the commotion of the city.
Garden Practices
Garden Practices
No special garden practices. A bubbling fountain needs to be tended and refreshed. An original icon of "Mary, Mother of Captives" needs care to keep it clean and well lit. The lighting fixtures need to be monitored.
A beautiful Japanese Maple tree, various wild grasses, rose bushes, Russian sage, year-round bushes, and when weather permits, annual plants and flowers that provide color.
Some parishioners help to tend the garden, but largely it is overseen by
Fr. Paul Morrissey, OSA, a friar who lives in the rectory of the parish.
Additional Information
Additional Information
Upkeep...especially during the blooming months (April thru October), to keep the garden looking beautiful.
Another regular helper would be welcome.
The garden needs further development to maximize its potential, e.g. a fixture to receive
prayer requests and secure donations, some construction work on the cruciform brick walkway,
some public relations to make it better known.
We had a formal dedication ceremony in 2015 (?) that involved the parishioners, with prayer, singing, and words of inspiration about what this garden can mean.
We hope to install a life-size sculpture of Fr. Bill Atkinson, OSA, a "Servant of God," in the next few years. This sculpture, with Fr. Bill in his wheel-chair, will draw people to the garden in an explicit and visual way--Fr. Bill was the first paraplegic priest ordained in the world, and he taught high school students for 30 years until he died in the last decade. The Healing Garden can be renamed at this point: "The Fr. Bill Atkinson Healing Garden. It can become a place where people with many kinds of disability come for inspiration and healing. Pope Leo XIV, a fellow Augustinian with Fr. Bill, can be invited to name him a saint from our garden.
