Christus Marble 3″

Beckoning to us with open arms in a most pleasant manner, encouraging everyone to “Hear Him” 

The original Christus statue by Sculptor Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) was made of plaster in 1823 and was used to create the 11-foot marble version in 1839 that stands today in the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen, Denmark. Thorvaldsen spent 40 years in Rome. After Thorvaldsen’s death in 1844, the Christus was erected in the Copenhagen Cathedral. 

In the 1950s, Stephen L Richards, a church apostle, purchased a 3.4-metre (11-foot) replica of the Christus and presented it to church president David O. McKay; it was moved to Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1966. A second Christus replica was created to be displayed in the church’s pavilion at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. The display of the replica “was intended to help visitors understand that Latter-day Saints are Christians”. Since then, the church has created replicas of the statue and displayed them in visitors’ centers near its temples

On April 4, 2020, church president Russell M. Nelson announced a new symbol for the church, featuring an image of the Christus as the central element, placed above the church’s name.