The Account of Pauline Perdrau, RSCJ, in a letter of how she came to paint this famous fresco:
Do you remember our old nurse Jacqueline? We used to call her the Saint. I was far from being a model child, and when my sewing and books wearied me, I tried to avoid them. It was my grandmother’s wish that I should learn to spin. To take up the spindle and distaff seemed to me a very irksome task. My nurse encouraged me… “Come,” she would say, “let us go to the temple of Jerusalem and see there Our Lady as she was at your age. She is spinning. Ask her to let you sit on her footstool. She will teach you to spin. You will never grow weary if you remain near Mary. See how calm she is, how gentle. She is thinking of God and working for Him …”
In contemplating her I grew to love her . . . Thus Mater Admirabilis became a reality to me years before I was able to express my mental image on wall or canvas.
