Ndalatando — The Brazilian visual artist Marlene Gomes da Cruz is restoring the image of Nossa Senhora Auxiliadora ( Our Lady Help of Christians), located in the sanctuary of the same name, Kipata neighborhood,, Ndalatando Municipality.
The intervention aims to improve the painting of the image, which has degraded due to time and natural factors such as sun, dust, and wind.
The artist also restored one of the statue's hands, which was broken by human action. The work aims to give a new image to the patron saint of the Salesian priests and is part of the pilgrimage to the sanctuary, scheduled for the 22nd to the 24th of this month.
The image of Our Lady Help of Christians is two meters tall and was made in the 1990s in Brazil, at the request of Catholic missionaries of the Salesian Order.
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The artist, who has been in Angola as a volunteer for over a year, has already worked on an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the Santo António de Libolo parish in Cuanza-Sul.
In Cuanza-Sul, she also made a wooden panel of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
This is the second time the artist has worked as a volunteer in Angola.
On her first mission, she worked on an image of Saint Teresa in Luena, Moxico. Marlene da Cruz has a degree in Fine Arts, an introductory course in restoration, and is an art educator.
She was a teacher in a municipal education network in Brazil and is currently retired.
