Angel figurines bring a message of love to an Ohio senior facility

Sister Helen Scasny surveyed the floor-to-ceiling wall of glass cabinets at the entrance to Light of Hearts Villa, a senior care center in Bedford.

Nearly 900 angel figurines of various ages, sizes, and materials crowded the well-lit shelves, Angel Figurine Gifts manufacturers but Scasny couldn't pick a favorite.

"My favorite thing to do is sit by my bed in Berta," Ščasný said of the guardian angel she named years ago. "I'll say goodnight to Bertha." I thank her for keeping me upright. I didn't fall!"

The senior living facility welcomes the public to view its angel display year-round, but the Christmas angels come out of storage to take a prominent place during Advent.

Scasny, now 85, keeps bees and promotes her honey as a "better nun," but she was a young teacher in the late 1940s who saw the angel collection flourish.

"People like to give the nuns gifts, but they never know what to give them," she said. "People gave us angels. We couldn't keep our gifts at the time, so we gave them away."

At Christmas, the faithful welcomed the Vincentian sisters, as they were then known, in the chapel of the motherhouse and its large nativity scene. The sisters eventually began placing their angels around the manger, prompting even more gifts of figurines in boxes wrapped in tissue paper. Donors returned year after year to see "their" angel.

"People came to the monastery and it was as if they were giving something to Jesus Christ at Christmas," Ščasný said. “It was their love that brought them to that crib. They respected that angel."

Mother Josef Slovanská realized how important the collection of angels had become for the lay community, and therefore designated a nearby room for the raiding angels. Displayed on fabric-covered "stairs" and placed against the walls, the display soon included choirs of angels, angels in ethnic dress, and angels playing sports.

When angels on skis joined the collection, maintenance workers invented a mountain to display them. Lights and Christmas music have also been added.

People brought their children to the exhibition, and adults often stayed to share a cup of coffee with the sisters.

“It was such a joyful time,” Scasny said. “Hospitality is so important.

The sisters put it on display throughout January so that the lay public could view their collection after the holiday frenzy. However, they remembered the guardian angels throughout the year and taught the pupils of the parish school about them. Slavic reminded local men entering military service to count on their guardian angels.

Meanwhile, the world has changed. Enrollment at the Lumen Cordium (Light of Hearts) Sisters High School was denied. When it closed in 1987, its director Scasny and her friend Regina Kusnir spearheaded the project to convert the beautiful building into a residential healthcare facility. Aware of the love that had developed for the angel collection, they insisted that their architect find a way to display it.

Today, the angels peek out of cages and curios throughout the Light of Hearts villa, but the largest group remains in the reception area, attracting the attention of the first visitors - be they deliverymen, interviewees or relatives of residents.

The figurines officially became property of the facility when the Vincentian Sisters of Charity merged with the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati in 2004.

Kusnir, who oversees pastoral care at the Light of Hearts Villa, manages a collection of approximately 2,000 angels. Like Scasny, he regularly addresses his guardian angel, whom he calls "Gibbs" after the character from the TV series "NCIS".

Before Christmas, Kusnir saves some figurines to share Christmas angels and nativity scenes from around the world. The public is invited to view the collection after registering at the reception.