In the portrait the figure of Bl. Damien is holding the handprint of Peggy herself, while the other handprints are from her family and her caregivers. The island of Molokai is in background.
Mecum explained that Peggy wanted the painting to change from left to right from starry night to the brightness of day to represent the hope that God was extending.
The back of the painting bears 142 handprints by the students in place of their signatures. Mecum added that the children who assisted Peggy "put all their healing and all their love into those squares of water paper."
The saint is shown holding a rosary in his hand. Mecum told CNA that the mosaic squares used to depict the rosary were painted in colors that Peggy did not own.
When Mecum told Peggy the squares had just showed up in the classroom, she replied "Heaven is painting."
"Then we knew we were going to complete this painting," Mecum said.
"She really wondered if this painting was planted in her heart when she was a little girl," Mecum said of Peggy, explaining that as a child the future artist saw a mosaic of the saint during a yearlong European tour with her parents.
"At that time, it was frozen in her heart and forevermore after that she thought it was such a dignified way to present a saint."
Pope Benedict XVI will be given the painting in an Oct. 14 audience with Mecum, fellow teacher Christine Matsukawa, and two students. The group will also attend the canonization of Fr. Damien.
Mecum credited the Holy Spirit with inspiring the trip. When the school's students wondered what would happen to the painting when it was finished, Matsukawa said "out of the blue" that it would be given to the Pope.
Mecum then went to Peggy with the idea.
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"Peggy, would you like the painting to be given to the Pope?" she asked.
After a long pause, Peggy started to cry. This caused Mecum to wonder if she did not want to give the painting away.
Then Peggy spelled out in reply the phrase: "That would be the greatest honor of my life – Yes!"
The provincial of Fr. Damien's order said he thought there could be no more magnificent and appropriate gift.
"I made a really serious promise that I would bring Peggy and find a way to present her painting to the Pope," Mecum told CNA.
Though Peggy died before she could go to Rome, her friends' prayers for help in their travels were "so soundly answered" three weeks after their planning began.
"We petitioned the Virgin Mary to secure transportation and tickets, and within weeks we had secured transportation," Mecum said.