Artwork Details
- Title
- Jesus Breaking Bread
- Artist
- Walter Erlebacher (1933 – 1991)
- Year
- 1976; installed 1978
- Medium
- Bronze, on bronze plinth and marble base
- Dimensions
- Height 6′ (plinth 4 1/4″; base 4′4")
Artwork Description
Commissioned for the 41st International Eucharistic Congress, which met in Philadelphia in 1976, Walter Erlebacher’s sculpture presents a figure of Jesus holding two pieces of broken bread, a symbol of Holy Communion. During the Congress, which attracted over a million visitors to the city, the sculpture was displayed at the former Philadelphia Civic Center. Later it was moved to a site near the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, and its formal blessing at this location took place on May 26, 1978. Standing near the sidewalk, it offers an accessible, immediate, and lifelike Jesus.
Content on this page was adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, 1992). Bach was the longtime Executive Director of the Association for Public Art, working with the organization from 1980 to 2022.
Artwork Credits
Commissioned by the 41st International Eucharistic Congress
Owned by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia
Artwork Media
Museum Without Walls
Voices:
MARTHA ERLEBACHER (1937-2013) was a painter and the wife of sculptor Walter Erlebacher (1933-1991) who created Jesus Breaking Bread. Both artists are recognized for their classical representations of the human figure.
MONSIGNOR JOHN MILLER (1937-2017) was a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who helped develop the commission for Jesus Breaking Bread in celebration of the 41st International Eucharistic Conference held in Philadelphia in 1976.
SISTER MARY SCULLION is a founder of Project H.O.M.E. and works on behalf of the poor and homeless. While a student at St. Joseph’s University, she was a planner for the 1976 Eucharistic Congress “Hunger for Bread Day,” which inspired the sculpture
Producer: Chana Joffe-Walt