Reading in Washington, D.C.

On a recent trip to Washington, D. C., I ran into this statue of someone obviously reading. It made me think about the Sandcastle Book Club and the blog. Upon further investigation, I realized this person is Saint Jerome the Priest. This particular statue was sculpted in 1954 by Ivan Mestrovic and sits in front of the Croatian Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue.

Mestrovic was born August 15, 1883, in Vrpolje, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and is definitely Croatia’s most prominent sculptor. He came to the United States after World War II. St. Jerome is the patron saint of librarians. His feast day is September 30. I just love the way Saint Jerome is sitting there so obviously absorbed in his book. Actually, it made my knees hurt after looking at it for a while!!