A newly installed, 5-foot-high granite statue of Mother Mary that’s the center of a Prayer Garden behind St. Augustine Church in Oak Harbor was knocked down by vandals Wednesday night.

“This is desecration. This goes to the very heart of our faith,” said the Rev. Paul Pluth, looking down on the statue that once gazed down from a 2-foot-high pedestal.

“The Blessed Virgin is such an iconic part of the Catholic Church.

“This is a hate crime, that’s how I see it.”

Oak Harbor police investigated the scene Thursday morning. Video from security cameras installed at the back of the church shows two young men committing the crime, but the video wasn’t clear enough to identify suspects, according to Sgt. Carl Seim with the Oak Harbor Police Department.

The crime is felony-level malicious mischief, Seim said.

The $10,000 statue was carved in eastern Europe and paid for with donations solicited for the Prayer Garden, said parishioner Theresa Frazer, who heads the garden committee. The park is intended as a “place of quiet reflection” open to the public.

Frazer stopped by the garden Thursday afternoon to see the destruction. In addition to knocking the statue off its base, vandals tore off slabs that comprised flashing for a stone wall. They lay cracked and in pieces.

Pots that contained roses were also smashed.

“This seems like there is real intent and hatred,” Frazer said. “This took effort. Installing it was a major undertaking.”

A Seattle Mariners ball cap was left on the statue’s head, apparently by the vandals.

Damage to the finely carved statue included chipped fingers and other marks.

The church’s custodian first noticed the vandalism early Thursday morning. In addition to the damaged statue, faucets supplying drip irrigation to newly-planted bushes and flowers were turned on and left running all night.

Pluth said he prayed over the fallen Mary before calling the police.

“People wanted more places for prayer and meditation. That’s why we decided on this project,” he said. “The heart of it is the statue of Mary, Queen of Peace, in what we call Our Lady Plaza.

“We had blessed the statue, we had blessed the plaza.”

Located on a sloping hill behind the church at 185 N. Oak Harbor St., trails, memorial benches, fundraising bricks and landscaping have all been installed. Stained glass panes placed at 15 stations of the cross and other features are still in the works for the garden.

Fundraising was done over two years and raised $103,500 to fund the total garden project, Frazer said.

The church will put the statue in storage for now, Pluth said.

Pluth is inviting the community to join in a prayer procession through the garden at 10:15 a.m., Ash Wednesday, March 1.

“If we can all get together Ash Wednesday and stand up for religion regardless of the vandalism, it will help,” said parishioner Barbara Dumit.

“It really just hurts to take a look at the wanton destruction. I don’t know if we can pray our way out of it or not.”

Rev. Paul Pluth and parishoner Theresa Frazer examine the damage to the Mary statue that was knocked over Wednesday night in the Prayer Garden at St. Augustine Catholic Church in Oak Harbor. Photo by Patricia Guthrie/Whidbey News-Times

Hands of the Virgin Mary statue were damaged during Wednesday night’s vandalism. Photo by Patricia Guthrie/Whidbey News-Times

The Virgin Mary statue in the Our Lady Plaza at St. Augustine Prayer Garden before being knocked down this week. Contributed photo by St. Augustine Catholic Church