Six years ago, Emmett Friel was strolling the grounds of the former Cathedral High School when he realized a mosaic of “The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary” that he and his 1962 senior classmates donated to the school was nowhere to be found.
So Friel, a retired Army veteran, called a former Cathedral principal and was told that the mosaic was being kept in a cafeteria at Bishop Machebeuf High School.
The mosaic had become worn and was structurally damaged. Tiles were missing about four inches deep all around the piece.
“I thought it had went into a Dumpster,” Friel said.
Friel contacted former classmates and together they raised nearly $1,500 to have the artwork restored.
On Saturday, Cathedral High School alums rededicated the mosaic that now hangs on a corridor wall inside Bishop Machebeuf.
The mosaic was designed by the late Anthony Velarde, a member of the 1962 senior class. Students would go into the school’s basement between classes and glue thousands of small, colorful glass tile pieces into place. It took nearly a year to complete.
The mosaic once hung on the front of Cathedral High School, at East 18th Avenue and Logan Street, until the school was closed. It was moved to Canavan Hall at East 17th Avenue and Pennsylvania Street before ending up at Bishop Machebeuf High School.
“It’s quite a labor of love,” said Richard Thompson, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Archdiocese of Denver
“Machebeuf is carrying on the Cathedral tradition.”
Staff writer Annette Espinoza can be reached at 303-954-1655 or aespinoza@denverpost.com.
