A Report on the Execution of the Garden of the Apostles at St. Joseph Catholic Chaplaincy, Imo State University, Owerri

Abstract

The flourishing of Christian religion as it were had its roots in Rome, following its appropriation as a State religion by the Roman Emperor Theodosius in 391 AD. The new church therefore by consequence of necessity naturally adopted the good attributes of art in propagating the teachings and doctrines of the new religion. Ever since then, the Catholic Church has continued to insist on the edification and teaching of her faithful using the age long agency of symbolism as made explicit in art. However, the challenge of giving identity to spaces and environments goes beyond the architectural definitions that such places exude. Therefore, even within the church, there was a weighty need to delineate the environment as a place of prayer and spiritual retreat, a function that art and specifically sculpture performs. This paper examines one of the attributes of sculpture in defining a space; also emphasizing the ecological, psychological, social and spiritual importance of gardening. The paper records the changing of a once bushy part of the chaplaincy’s space into an ambient environment suitable for solitude and spiritual retreat, giving the step by step stages undertaken towards the realization of the project using the art of sculpture and gardening.