he story of the mobiles begins with the mobile made for the Lower Monastery Chapel of Regina Laudis in the early 1970's by Alexander Calder's long-time engineer, Carmen Segre of Segre Iron Works in Waterbury, Connecticut. The mobile was the fruit of a collaboration over many years between Carmen and one of the founding artists of Regina Laudis, Mother Prisca Dougherty, O.S.B.  
n 2002 Mother Praxedes Baxter, O.S.B., M.F.A., was inspired to carry the early collaboration of Carmen Segre and Mother Prisca forward into a second mobile design for the Abbey Church of Jesu Fili Mariæ. Mother Praxedes consulted Steve Segre and his wife Susan who now continue the work of

Segre Iron Works. In response, Steve suggested studying his father's mobile, so Mother Anastasia Morgan, O.S.B., the Abbey blacksmith, and Mother Praxedes assembled the mobile in the newly restored "Phoenix Blacksmith Shop" of the Abbey. There, Steve began to teach them the principles of balance and fabrication. After much experimentation and model making, Steve called one October day in 2003 with a message, "Christmas is coming soon, why don't we make the large mobile at my shop? My father made the mobile for the Chapel, I would like to make the mobile for the Church." Mother Praxedes and the community gratefully accepted this gracious offer.

he mobile, now in place in the Abbey Church, was inspired by Carmen Segre's 1970 mobile and by a Calder mobile which hangs in The Forge and Anvil, the Segres' studio in Woodbury, Connecticut. Its graceful elegance reflecting a freedom of spirit released through exacting balance, was made possible through the love and dedication of many working together.


he mobiles give joy to many during the Christmas season and inspire us all to ponder more deeply the mysteries of Christ's birth as expressed by Mother Abbess in her prayer of Christmas day 2003:

In wonder and gratitude for the exquisite care God took from the beginning of creation to prepare for Himself a people, balancing Patriarchs and Judges, Kings and prophets and finally Our Lady, on this great mobile moving through eons of time; until in the wisdom of God there was enough balance to allow the almighty Word to leap down and set the mobile moving in a new spiral, so that through the Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ each of us could take his place in this great movement of return to the Father.


Mobile design by Mother Praxedes Baxter, O.S.B., M.F.A.
Engineering and Fabrication gift of Mr. Stephen Segre,
Segre Iron Works, Waterbury, CT and The Forge and Anvil, Woodbury, CT
Gold leaf gilding gift of Mr. Peter Miller, P.H. Miller Studios, Woodbury, CT
Stained Glass gift of Priscilla Porter, Plumb Hill Studio, Washington, CT
and Stella Pelegano, Pelegano Stained Glass, Plantsville, CT
Elizabeth Noel Conover offered the initial donation to begin the project.