The six figures are a visual allegory of the corporate acts of mercy as told in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 25: “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. ... Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

These verses eloquently state the mission of the Sisters of Mercy as indeed they distill the essence of the Christian ethic.

I visualized the acts of mercy in the form of six women— six sisters— Sisters of Mercy, each in a niche crowned by a Gothic arch. Because St. Joseph Mercy Hospital serves people from around the world, I represented all of the races of humanity in the faces of the six sisters. I modeled the features of the fifth figure, which represents visitation of the sick, after Catherine McAuley, herself the founder of the Sisters of Mercy.

I added a vine motif beneath them as an allusion to the verses in Holy Scripture where Christ says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.”