MANKATO — Everyone loves a mystery.

For Sister Mary Kay Ash, archivist of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Mankato, a lingering mystery remains — not so much a “who done it” but more of a “who donated it.”

The “it” being a small limestone statue of the Virgin Mary holding Baby Jesus. The statue was recently taken out of storage and given a new home in the garden behind SS. Peter and Paul Church in Mankato.

Ash has been doing a little sleuthing on the history of the statue. Following a conversation with Sister Mary Ann Osborne, a wood sculptor who also resides at SSND, Ash learned that Osborne recognized the statue as the work of Joseph O’Connell. O’Connell was an artist who created more than 100 pieces, many that were commissioned by churches and monasteries throughout the United States. O’Connell was the artist in residence at St. Benedict’s College in St. Joseph for several years.

“Sister Mary Ann Osborne saw the statue and said she had seen a picture of a similar statue in a book on Joseph O’Connell,” Ash says.

Ash learned that O’Connell was commissioned to create a statue for St. Benedict’s that closely resembled the piece in Mankato. Osborne theorizes that the Mankato statue may have been the model for the St. Benedict’s sculpture.

Armed with Osborne’s input, Ash has continued to try and track down clues as to where the statue originally came from. Sister Mary Ann Kuttner, who is also interested in discovering who donated the piece, located a photograph dating back to the spring of 1966 showing a group of nuns from School Sisters of Notre Dame standing next to the statue. The picture was taken when SS. Peter & Paul Parish celebrated the centennial of School Sisters of Notre Dame’s arrival in Mankato. Although the statue is mentioned in the caption, there is no indication of who donated it.

Ash spoke with Sister Laura Schmitt, who lived for many years at the convent next to SS. Peter and Paul’s church, the original setting of the statue. Ash said that Schmitt remembered O’Connell’s daughter once stopped in Mankato to see the statue. Schmitt also said that the sculptor’s daughter said that the child’s face on the statue was based on John F. Kennedy’s face. Ash believes O’Connell might have done that as a remembrance of the assassinated president. The statue was completed in 1964, one year after Kennedy’s death.

In spite of her efforts to find out who donated the statue or how it got there, until recently Ash has come up empty handed. Kuttner points out that the statue is a work of art.

“It is an art piece,” Kuttner says. “This isn’t something that was commercially made.”

Ash long suspected that the statue might have been donated by Kasota Stone since the company has a history of generous donations in the region and recently donated $200,000 in stone for St. John the Baptist Catholic Church’s renovation.

Doug Smith, who is in marketing and business development with Kasota Stone, finally confirmed her hunch to The Free Press. Smith went back through the records that the company keeps, and after a few days of searching and checking with one of Kasota Stone’s owners, Bob Coughlan, Smith said the statue was a gift to the School Sisters of Notre Dame back in the 1960s.

“It’s good to have some closure to this ‘mystery.’ Now we can move on to the next one — whatever that may be,” Ash said.