Charlotte Huston Reischer-Clark '51 (shown here) donated this statue of Saint Sebastian in memory of Marianne Katscher, a young woman who planned to attend MHC in 1939, but was killed in the Holocaust.

In some ways, things were much the same in 1939—when young Marianne Katscher of Czechoslovakia received a letter of acceptance from Mount Holyoke—as they are today. Just like any twenty-first century international student, she must have been thrilled at the adventure that lay before her, leaving her home and all she knew to attend a prestigious American college for women. But things were different in 1939—Adolf Hitler's troops seized Czechoslovakia in March of that year, and Katscher was a Jew. She and her parents knew that going to MHC would be the only way she would make it out of the country. Marianne Katscher never made it to South Hadley. Instead, before she could pack her bags for college, she and her family were taken to Theresienstadt, a concentration camp, and perished without a trace in the Holocaust.

Through a circuitous set of circumstances Marianne Katscher, dead for more than sixty years, now has a presence at MHC. Charlotte Huston Reischer-Clark '51, whose service to the College includes serving as head class agent for her fiftieth reunion this year, recently donated a Baroque statue of Saint Sebastian to MHC in Katscher's honor. That statue, now installed in Abbey Interfaith Sanctuary, belonged for more than 100 years to the Reischer-Katscher family and was brought to America from Vienna in 1938. When Otto Reischer introduced his then new wife (Charlotte Huston Reischer-Clark '51) to his parents in 1951, she was surprised by their warm response when hearing she was a Mount Holyoke alumna. It was then that she learned of the tragic story of Otto's cousin, Marianne Katscher. Says Reischer-Clark "Now, fifty years later, this statue will stand as an emblem of cross-cultural and cross-religious harmony."

"As many of us gaze at Saint Sebastian, we find ourselves thinking that the statue made the trip from Europe to this country—a trip that Marianne Katscher was never able to make herself," says Andrea Ayvazian, dean of religious life. "Standing now in the chapel, Saint Sebastian will forever recall a life extinguished too soon and a journey never taken. How fitting that a Christian statue memorializing a Jewish woman should be installed in the interfaith sanctuary. On the cold December day when Charlotte brought the statue to the sanctuary, those of us present were so moved by the piece and the story, we found ourselves sharing a spontaneous blessing and meditation. I believe those who gaze at the statue in the years ahead will find themselves as moved and inspired as we were on that winter day. We are grateful for Charlotte's generosity. Her gift makes us pause, reflect, and remember."

About Saint Sebastian and the Statue

The College’s new statue of Saint Sebastian, a gift of Charlotte Huston Reischer-Clark ’51 is the second image of the saint on campus. This painting, Saint Sebastian Tended by Saint Irene, by Daniel Seiter (1649–1705) is part of the collections of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum.

Little is known about Saint Sebastian. He is said to have been an officer of the Praetorian guard in the third century, the time of the Roman emperor Diocletian. Legend has it that Sebastian kept his Christianity a secret until Marcus and Marcellinus, his companions, were condemned to death for their belief in the religion. When he offered them his support, his own belief was revealed. It was ordered that he be shot with arrows and left for dead. Apparently, none of his vital organs was pierced, and he survived. In one legend, it is said that a widow named Irene nursed him back to health. He confronted the emperor with a renewed avowal of his faith and was beaten to death with clubs, his body thrown into Rome's main sewer. The image of Sebastian has been used by painters and sculptors, most notably of the Italian Renaissance, as a vehicle for the portrayal of the standing male nude. He is typically shown bound and pierced with arrows. In the fourth century, Sebastian began being viewed as a protector against the plague, a fitting role for him, because the ancients believed that disease was caused by the arrows of Apollo.

The statue of the saint given by Reischer-Clark is "a marvelous example of sacred Baroque art," says Marianne Doezema, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum director. "Some of the original gilding remains, which helps convey some sense of the dramatic appearance of this piece in its original setting. It was probably made for a private chapel or church in the seventeenth century, very likely in Italy. The art museum has in its collection a seventeenth-century painting of the same martyred saint."