Samuel Bugeja was commissioned in the early seventies to create a full size statue carved in solid wood of the Madonna of Lourdes dedicated to the Parish Church in Paola.

The ‘bozzetto’ was created to show the Parish how the finished wooden sculpture would look like. In addition, a bigger creation was sculptured to show how the artist was visualising the face of Our Lady Of Lourdes. These two works of art (in plaster) are part of the history of the full size statue in solid wood that now resides at the Paola Parish Church dedicated to the Madonna of Lourdes.