Shrine of the Holy Innocents

The building of the new shrine dedicated to the Holy Innocents began in November 2011.

It has taken two years to see the dream become a reality after more than $500,000 was raised by the residents of the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary and the wider community, including major sponsor Kenthurst businessman Walter Bachmann of BAC Systems. Donations came from people all over Australia who learnt of the project through the Franciscan order’s newsletter, ‘The Little Troubadour‘.

In the interior, artist Theodore Velin, originally from Bulgaria, has painted a beautiful fresco on the chapel’s impressive domed ceiling and also created four religious mosaics for the chapel. Each mosaic took three months to complete.

His icons of St Clare and St Francis flank the entrance to the shrine. The fresco on the dome features the Virgin Mary and St Maximilian Kolbe, who established the Marian apostolate the ‘Militia Immaculata’ or Knights of the Immaculate; he is also a patron saint of the Pro-Life movement. The Franciscans consider the shrine a place of holy beauty and are continuing to landscape the surrounding grounds. The walk through the garden is modelled on the 14 Stations of the Cross, depicting Jesus’ path to His crucifixion with sculptural representations in almost life-size figures.