The Story

The Beginning

In 1987, Ed & Pat Heinz purchased a 120-year old farm house situated on 50 acres of land in Windsor, Ohio in Ashtabula County. As parents of nine children, they considered using the farm as a Catholic youth camp, but the farm was in terrible shape and much work had to be accomplished before the family could even live in the house. With a clear purpose in mind, the family pitched in and started to fix up the farm and fields. In 1990, however, misfortune struck and several private investments soured. Their dream began to unravel. The bank foreclosed on the mortgage and Ed and Pat were forced to file bankruptcy! The family was disappointed, but their faith was not shaken. They did not blame God for their misfortune. As Ed and Pat look back on this tragedy, they credit a pilgrimage to Meduugorje as the reason their faith never wavered. "No matter how bad things seemed to be, we trusted that Our Lord and Our Lady would take care of us," Pat relates. " We submitted to Our Lord’s will and became more dependent than ever on His Divine Providence"

England

With Ed’s solid background in Nuclear Engineering they started a new consulting and construction business and the family prospered. But everyone, especially the children, longed to return to the farm in Windsor, Ohio. Ed and Pat told the children that if they wanted the farm back they would have to pray to Jesus and Mary, and that only Our Lord could now restore their family farm. Setting hope against all odds during a visit to the States, Pat returned briefly to the farm and built a statue of St. Joseph and a medal of St Benedit on the property. Back in England, the family started a fervent devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. They took advantage of each opportunity to pray before Our Lord’s Eucharistic presence in the tabernacle. Carl and Rachael who were three and four years old thought it was normal to stop in every Catholic church along the way. Upon entering a church, the children would always go first to the tabernacle and implore Jesus to give the farm back to them. When Pat asked why he wanted to go back to the farm so much, Carl told Pat that " Mary told him to go back to the farm and wait".

Return to the Farm

Across the Atlantic, the farm sat vacant for two years. Purchase offers fell through. The bank was not able to sell the farm! Finally, at the end of January, 1992, the bank was going to auction the farm in a public Sheriff’s sale. A third party intervened and Ed and Pat were able to purchase the farm. God had answered the Heinz’s prayers in a dramatic fashion! Pat and the kids moved back to the farm on February 2, 1992, the same day we left in 1990. While Ed remained in England to continue his work. For the next year and a half, Ed commuted between the U.S. and England. Though Our Lord’s generosity, the profits from the company retired the farm debt in less than one year.

Back in the States, Pat found herself with a dilapidated old house. Nothing worked! The house needed new bathrooms and a kitchen, but Pat insisted that the first order of business was to build a room for Our Lord; a chapel right in the middle of the house. She maintained that since God had restored their home, He deserved the first room. Although this make little practical sense (with all the other pressing needs), the older children and Pat started the first renovation, and that was the family prayer chapel. After redecoration of some bedrooms and getting the bathrooms in working order, the family built a shrine to Our Lady of Grace on a small island in the pond in front of the house. A significant quantity of large stone was needed to complete the shrine and the older children did not know where they would find the stone. Pat told them if Our Lady wants the shrine she will provide the stone. As the older boys started building a new front porch, they found all the large stones necessary to complete the project. The pond is 15 feet deep. When the excavator finished the digging he declared it would take two years to fill the pond with water. The awesome power of God proved him wrong! After placing a life size statue of Our Lady of Grace on the island, a dear friend, Fr. John McFadden, consecrated the Heinz farm as the Servants of Mary Center for Peace on July 9, 1992 to the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts. On July 13th-a special Fatima apparition feast day-rain poured down upon their property. By July 16th -three days later-the pond was full and ran over its edge for a week.

Statue of Our Lady

On August 5, 1992, the Center hosted its first program in a tent. Among one of the speakers that day was Tony Zuniga from Philadelphia, Pa. Because Tony is Mexican/American and has a great devotion of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Ed and Pat asked him to walk the property and designate a spot for the shrine to Her. After three days of prayer, Tony suggested the shrine to be built on the island in a small lake that had been excavated out in the field in the back o the house. He said the statue should be 33 feet high in honor of Jesus’ life on earth. With great anticipation, Ed and Pat promised Tony that if he found a sculptor, they would build the statue! Within weeks, Tony discovered a talented sculptor named Richard Hyslin in Texas. Richard’s first model did not include the base, the rays or the supporting angel. When he adjusted the model to replicate the real tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, the total image rose to 50 feet.

Ed’s company continued to flourish in England and Pat continued to improve the Center for Peace. As a couple, they endured the trial and travel to ensure the center could be built in honor of Our Lord and Our Lady. Inspired by a healing service with Fr. Peter Mary Rookey during the summer of 1993, the boys built an open-sided 100' by 46' pavilion. By winter, the pavilion was enclosed, insulated and heated. It now serves as the chapel and as a stage for nationally renowned speakers, musicians, and holiday programs. Over the summer of 1994, Richard Hyslin and his crew raised and finished the concrete substrate of Our Lady of Guadalupe near the back of the lake. After allowing the statue to cure properly over the winter, Our Lady was completed with 450 thousand colored 1" tiles and stainless steel rays by late spring, 1995.

Ed summarized the family’s zeal for Our Lord, "When we prayed for Our Lord to return the farm, we promised Him that we would use it for the Greater Glory of God. We have invested of our income to improve the farm and to develop the Servants of Mary Center for Peace." Pat adds, "We want to bring Our Lord glory by having Mass said regularly here, and by offering our home as a haven of peace. Here, ordained and lay Catholic speakers and singers from all over the world can teach and share the treasures of tour Catholic faith with people of all faiths."

A Special Place

Ed related, "The Servants of Mary Center for Peace is more"grassroots" Catholic. Our desire is to provide a holy and peaceful environment where God"'s people can learn more about their faith and share in the fellowship of the Body of Christ".

Now that Ed has moved permanently back to the States, the Heinz family is together again and working more diligently to glorify the Lord. They want to share the joy they found with you and they invite you to visit.

(While the Servants of Mary Center for Peace hosts many speakers and clergy from around the world for the benefit of the faithful, the Servants of Mary Center for Peace is a private, non-profit, Catholic corporation, and is not affiliated with any other ministry or apostolate. The Board of Directors, the Heinz family, and all the volunteers are committed to faithfully and obediently following the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church.)

Construction of the Statue

In the images above, you see a progression of the construction of the statue - from assembly of the framework on the left, to the application of 450,000 individual ceramic tiles on the right.

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