Thousands of hand-written prayers have been hung in the northern courtyard of Philadelphia’s Cathedral Basillica of St. Peter and Paul in Logan Square.
The now famous 20-by-13 foot prayer grotto has be- come one of the most talked about attractions from Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia this past weekend.
With a strict budget of $200,000, it took the team of five one month of fourteen-hour workdays to bring the vision to life.
On Friday afternoon Daniel Ostrov, one of the head de- signers on this project, stood amongst the white ribbons amazed by the number of people that had already come by to hang their prayers in hopes of a blessing from Pope Francis.
Ostrov and his team had an original goal of 30,000 prayers to be hung throughout the prior week to and during the course of Pope Francis’ visit to the City of Brotherly Love. As of Monday of last week, there had already been 100,000 prayers. Ostrov assumes that there had been double that by Friday afternoon.
Visitors had not just been from Philadelphia and its surrounding areas.
“There [have] been people from Italy, Spain, Ecuador, and Thailand,” Ostrov said. While bringing this creation together, the team had no idea what to expect. The feeling of not knowing the outcome brought a mixture of emo- tions, especially for Ostrov.
“While I was building this, it was honestly just pure fear that was motivating me,” Ostrov said.
The lead artist on the project, Meg Saligman, came to Ostrov with the idea for a grotto months ago. Although Ostrov is a sculptor, he works primarily with wood. Salig- man’s ideas combined with his wood design helped the project come to life.
The inspiration came from Mary Undoer of Knots, one of Pope Francis’ favorite paintings. The idea is that everyone has their own struggles, but there is someone else out there who is able to relate to those struggles as well.That is exactly what has been happening for thousands that visit this grotto. While waiting in line, visitors were handed a white strip of cloth. They are then directed to write their prayer or struggle down and tie it amongst the others. There is a much bigger meaning behind simply writing your prayers down on a piece of white ribbon.
“The wood of the grotto starts from the bottom and moves up throughout the foundation,” Ostrov said. “The idea is that the prayers people speak and write down here on Earth are drawn up to heaven.”
Watching his work of art come together has been life changing for Ostrov. While recognizing this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, he said he feels both thankful and blessed.
Unscheduled, during the papal parade, Pope Francis made his way to the knotted grotto and blessed all the prayers.
“Certain things you just do because it is an opportunity,” Ostrov said. “I’ll never be able to do anything like this again for the Pope.”
Photo credit- Moira Prior
