Reading Room Busts
The centerpiece of the library will be the Reading Room, which will feature marble busts of some of the Church’s greatest thinkers, including Doctors of the Church and a few other holy men and women who are particularly important to the College. The life-size busts will stand at the end of each of the sixteen rows, symbolizing our students’ continued dialogue with these great saints and inspiring them with real life examples of how to live out the Catholic faith intelligently and heroically.
Benedictine College has commissioned master sculptor Cody J. Swanson to hand carve these busts from white Carrara marble selected from the Barattini Quarry in northern Italy, the same quarry from which Michelangelo chose the marble for the Pietà. Along with two other large statues of Mary, Swanson is carving the busts in his studio in Florence, just miles away from Benedictine’s Florence campus. Each bust will feature the head and shoulders of the subject. The busts will be life size and around 120 pounds each. They will be presented at slightly above eye level, and they will be anchored to pedestals, which will be designed by Swanson.
For $75,000, donors may dedicate a bust to the honor or memory of a loved one or as a sign of gratitude for the saint’s intercession.
About the Artist
Cody Joseph Swanson resides in Florence, Italy, where he runs a traditional sculpture workshop in the tradition of Michelangelo and Bernini. Swanson holds an M.A. in Liturgy, Sacred Art, and Architecture and has taught sculpture at the Florence Academy of Art and the Sacred Art School of Florence. Swanson has completed projects for the Cathedrals of Sioux Falls and Minneapolis along with the Basilica of the National Shrine to Mary of Holy Hill, Wisconsin. More recently Swanson completed several sculptures for Tampa Jesuit High School and a set of sculptures of the Fatima visionaries for the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Wichita, Kansas. Swanson’s art has been recognized by the Catholic Art Institute, and he visited Benedictine College in Fall 2023 to receive the Center for Beauty and Culture’s Prize for Excellence in Theology and the Arts.
