Canadian Catholic sculptor Timothy Schmalz is promoting timeless Gospel values with a new interactive urban pilgrimage in Rome.
Connecting Pilgrims Through Compassion, a Jubilee 2025 initiative, invites participants on a two-and-a-half-hour spiritual journey to eight key sites within the Eternal City. A bronze sculpture rendered by Schmalz graces each stop along the way.
By scanning the QR code available at each location, visitors will access an audio reflection from the 56-year-old, St. Jacob’s, Ont., native that shares insights about each sculpture’s thematic message and behind-the-scenes details about bringing this artwork to life.
Schmalz sees the experience as a “pilgrimage within a pilgrimage” as it already takes pilgrims to must-see destinations within the City of Seven Hills.
“It’s not like these pieces are leading you somewhere that is not a beautiful spiritual place to begin with,” said Schmalz. “It’s a beautiful layer on top of another — like those Russian eggs where you open up the egg and you see another smaller egg and you open up.
“You have St. Peter and James near the Colosseum. You have When I was in Prison (near) Basilica of St. Paul Outside The Walls. You have one of the earliest Christian churches still in existence today and that’s the Basilica San Lorenzo in Chains.”
The journey begins in St. Peter’s Square with Angels Unawares, the bronze sculpture depicting a group of migrants and refugees on a boat. The angel wings that emerge from the middle of this vessel epitomize that there is a blessedness within the people who are on the margins of society.
This piece was notably commissioned by Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny, who was the under-secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development’s migrants and refugees’ section in 2019 when Schmalz unveiled it. Since 2022, Czerny has served as the prefect of the dicastery.
Stop two carries some poignancy for Schmalz. His Be Welcoming bronze statue was placed within St. Peter’s Square on April 15, less than six days before the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday.
“We thought it was going to be installed after Easter,” said Schmalz. “And now I think, thank God that it was installed when it did because this is, to me, personally, so much associated with Pope Francis, that piece specifically with his concern about the marginalized.”
Fittingly, Schmalz’s When I was Sick and When I was Hungry and Thirsty creations are both affixed outside the Hospital of the Holy Spirit (Presidio Ospedaliero Santo Spirito). The former depicts an infirm Jesus suffering from illness, and the latter is of a hooded Jesus extending His hand with a nail mark, gesturing to an empty offering bowl.
Schmalz’s Homeless Jesus, arguably the most famous piece of the prolific sculptor’s career, features as the penultimate stop on the pilgrimage. The visual representation of Christ sleeping on a park bench like a homeless person is installed outside the headquarters of the Community of Sant’ Egidio, a global Christian lay movement focused on serving the poor, building peace and devoting time to prayer.
The other two pieces that feature in this tour are When I Was a Stranger and When I was Naked.
Promoting compassion is the thematic throughline connecting all eight sculptures that were either based on Hebrews 13:2 or Matthew 25. Hebrews 13:2 reminds disciples to “do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing people have shown hospitality to angels unawares without knowing it.” Matthew 25, a discourse from Jesus that urges believers to be watchful and prayerful to prepare for Christ’s ultimate return, communicates in verse 40 that “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”
Schmalz said amalgamating all the sculptures he has formed based on these two verses within a single experience “is symbolically important” and it “reminds us of the spiritual duties we have” to visit the imprisoned, tend to the sick, give to the poor and recognize God among the ostracized.
In early September, Schmalz will be on hand to unveil his new piece that pays tribute to Carlos Acutis — just in time for his canonization on Sept 7 alongside Pier Giorgio Frassati. Currently, he is working to bring visual life to the famous writings of Christian apologist G.K. Chesterton.
