Rosary prayers hummed as residents of St. Patrick’s Home Rehabilitation and Health Care Center made their way into the service hall for a day honoring Our Lady of Fatima, more commonly known as the Virgin Mary, whose statue arrived during the early morning hours of Nov. 13 as patrons celebrated Mass.

For the director of pastoral care, Kathleen Mayer, the arrival of the bust represents a major honor. The Archdiocese of New York had advertised the availability of the statue in Catholic New York, advising anyone interested in having it shown off at its institute to contact them. Meyer put in a request to have the statue brought to the home at 66 Van Cortlandt Park S. in Van Cortlandt Village. The Archdiocese of New York honored the request two weeks after she inquired.

“We were so honored to get it,” said Meyer, soon wheeling a few residents into the elevator. “I know it traveled throughout the Bronx and all over Yonkers.”

“Every year since I can remember, we had the whole month dedicated to her,” says pastoral care assistant Maria Ordóñez, who has worked at the home for 14 years and grew up worshiping Our Lady of Fatima in a northern region of Spain that borders Portugal. “It gives me peace when I see her.”

The statue of Our Lady of Fatima, which originally hails from Portugal, has a golden crown and has both a rosary and scapular wrapped around its clasped hands. A necklace that carries a small round object hangs around the collar, which Ordóñez believes represents the weight of the world around its neck. On the statue’s pedestal, a sign warns residents not to touch the bust because they will feel its touch instead.

This is the second time the home was able to obtain the statue, though there are 12 other identical versions of it around the world that are ushered around different houses of worship.

The home, which has provided care for the aged and infirm and is run by Carmelite nuns, has 264 beds available for residents such as Estelle Carbonara, 87, a lifelong Bronx native who has lived at the home for the last seven years. “I like the fact that I can come down to the chapel any time day or night,” says Carbonara, who watched the mass from her bedroom to keep her 101-year-old roommate company. “When you think about it, you’re practically living in the church.”