This beautiful gift to the St. Raphael’s parish family was conceived to honor the memory of our daughter, Toni Christine Masini, an active member of the church community beginning at the age of 10 when our family moved to Raleigh in 1980. The bronze angel statue and surrounding brick fountain are the artistry and architectural work of two graduate students at North Carolina State University. This is unique in that Toni Christine was a rising senior at NCSU at the time of her tragic death in 1992.

Early in 1994, the pastor, Fr. Paul Byron, asked for an individual or family to consider a donation that would complete the existing flower garden on the plaza facing Falls of the Neuse. This flower garden was created to remember Anne McPartland, a former church member, by her children. Our family decided this fountain would be a perfect way to keep Toni’s memory alive at the parish she loved so dearly and so the ‘journey’ began. With the guidance of The Holy Spirit, we began to contemplate just what would be the finished creation.

The artist who was chosen to create our ‘angel with flute’ came into our lives after Bob contacted the dean of the School of Design at NCSU. The dean gave us the name of one of his graduate students, Les Frye. We were shown some of his work; a bust he had made of an Asian fellow student was exquisite and so we met him and began to explain what it was that we wanted him to do and why. Because the project included a fountain and an existing structure, Les suggested that we include an architectural expert in the plan. It was decided that we should meet ‘on site’ so that the proper scale could be ascertained. Les brought along a fellow student, Matt Dube, who was an architecture major at the time. Together, they asked lots of questions and were very thankful for the 3 foot cardboard replica that Bob had made to simulate the angel that we were envisioning for this space. Thus, Les and Matt were able to get a better idea of what it was that they would need to be considering for their parts of the project.

Matt developed plans for the fountain and Les began making a ‘prototype’ angel out of clay that would be taken to a foundry in Seagrove, NC. In order to make that prototype, Les would need a model holding a flute so that he could create this statue. We asked one of Toni’s friends from NCSU who also played the flute and was the first recipient of the scholarship that we have in place at the university in Toni’s memory to be that person. So, Donna Brauns and I met Les down at NCSU in the basement of the School of Design. In that one evening, Les was able to take a clump of clay and mold it into a 12 inch replica of an angel playing the flute. I sat mesmerized watching this happen right in front of my eyes.

The next step was to take this prototype to Seagrove where the foundry owner, Ed Walker, was able to take measurements and listen to our requirements for the finished product. Mr. Walker told us that he would need about eight weeks to get it completed after he received the final clay model. The lengthy process to make this happen is truly remarkable and Ed walked us through each room where the various processes would be completed. He told us that we would be notified when it was time to come down for the final process, the patina phase. (more about that later).

With this information from Mr. Walker, we met again with Les to begin the REAL clay model. Les told us that we would need to come and look at his progress often to make sure he was on the right track. We told him that we did not want the angel to look like Toni, but we did want it to have long curly hair like Toni had. He asked for some photos of Toni so that he could incorporate her features in the final project. And so his work began in the living room of his on campus housing where he lived with three other students.

After several meetings with Les, the 3 foot clay angel statue was ready for its voyage to Seagroves and the next stage of the process which was to make it into a bronze statue. Mr. Walker, an artist himself, made some very minor changes to the eyes of our angel which brought out that feature of its face. We would now wait anxiously for that call to say our angel was ready for the patina process.

The call came from Mr. Walker that our angel was ready for the final process, the patina phase that would give her ‘life’! So we headed to Seagrove to watch our angel go from bright gold to a beautiful angel with a variety of muted colors that the artist was able to create using a blow torch and a variety of materials that brought our angel to life. It was amazing to watch this process and see how each material that he used brought out some part of the statue. After this was completed, our angel was wrapped in a soft, white cloth and we headed back to Raleigh to await the mounting of the statue.

While the statue was being cast, the brick work and fountain materials were being carefully built and monitored by Mr. Joe Hoying, our ‘angel maker’. Joe and his crew worked with care, dedication and tenacity to make everything just right for the new home for our angel. And so it was in June of 1996, that the angel would be placed on its pedestal. We waited until the Saturday before the dedication on Sunday to bring the angel to its final resting place. Interestingly enough, the first person to see it was Jim Oppold and his wife, Mary Ann, who were just coming out of church from the 9 AM mass that morning. The look on their faces told us that we had ‘done all the right things’ to not only keep Toni’s memory alive, but as a meaningful gift to St. Raphael parish as well.

How the angel would face was determined by a good friend who was visiting from Dallas, Texas a few weeks before the actual mounting was done. As we were standing in the area of the fountain and talking with our friends, Ken and Rachel Carithers, about which way to face the statue, it was Rachel who suggested that the angel should face looking between the entrance to the church and Falls of the Neuse Road as a symbol of Toni’s perfect balance between her Christian and secular life value systems. And so it was to be. 

This flower garden and ‘angel with flute’ fountain remained here for the next 5 years until it was time to make way for additions and renovations for parish expansion. And while this was going on, the angel was taken back to Seagrove to have its patina refurbished. To accommodate a new set of plans, the flower garden and fountain were moved closer to the parking lot to be more of a focal point for parishioners and visitors on their way in to church or the parish center. This time the angel would face the Blessed Sacrament Chapel where the Eucharist is kept. We felt this was most appropriate because as a child, Toni had insisted that the Baby Jesus be kept in the ‘bread box’ during Advent while waiting for his birth since He is “The Bread of Life”.

The garden and ‘angel with flute’ fountain were re-dedicated on Sunday, November 3, 2002.

A side note: In the entrance of the church near the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, there is a picture of Toni Christine that was taken Easter Sunday, 1992 just two months before her death. It includes a short biography of her life. Toni had played her flute at mass that morning and when our family returned home, we took a family photo by the dogwood in our back yard that was in full bloom. Then Toni asked her Dad to take a picture of just her with her flute (something she had never done before). Little did we know how this picture would be used in keeping her memory alive at St. Raphael’s.

The Masini Family