St. Joe went missing last week.

The statue of St. Joseph sat under a plexiglass dome on the northwest corner of the St. Anthony Hospital grounds for years until he vanished a week ago Saturday. For a while, nobody noticed. Finally, on Friday morning, the St. Anthony Hospital environmental services crew noticed something amiss.

Larry Blancs phone started ringing as soon as he arrived in his office at 8 a.m. Blanc, the hospitals communications director, heard the voice of facility operator Kristy Michael sounding slightly distressed.

Larry, St. Joseph is gone, Michael said.

A discolored patch was all that remained of the bearded saint. A marker featuring a line drawing of St. Josephs Academy sat undisturbed next to the smudge.

The statue offers a likeness of Joseph, the father of Jesus and, according to Catholic tradition, the patron saint of workers. The sculpture, clutching lilies in his right hand, took up residence in St. Joseph Academy in 1918, standing guard just inside the main entrance. Blanc, who attended the Catholic grade school, saw St. Joe most every day of his school life.

Blanc held off calling the police. First he checked with Matt Duchek, a former St. Joseph student who had installed the plaster of Paris sculpture on the corner of Southeast Court Place and 14th Street after the school was torn down.

Duchek had good news. St. Joe was in La Grande getting a makeover. Mary Jo Price, a 1953 St. Joseph graduate, had arranged to have the statues paint job freshened. The statue, she said, had gone to La Grande where a friend of St. Joseph graduate Mary Alice Crowell, Billie Holliday of Holidaize Ceramics, would brighten St. Joes fading exterior.

Price said St. Joe has faced other adversity. When school alumni first placed the statue outside in 2002, we put a dome over him to protect him from the rain and snow. Inside the dome, he baked on hot summer days, blistering his paint. Moisture also built up inside the dome, causing mold to invade the statues soft interior. St. Josephs protectors added vents to the plexiglass dome to ease the harsh environment.

Over the past few years, the elements had done their work. Price said she had St. Joes best interests at heart by spiriting him away.

Price said a chance to transport the statue to La Grande had arisen quickly. Crowell had come to Pendleton a week ago Saturday to watch a dance competition and asked if she could give St. Joe a lift. Price drafted her son-in-law Matt Richter to lift the statue from his pedestal into Crowells car and she headed out of town with the statue in the trunk.

St. Joe will return by early summer in plenty of time for an all-school reunion in August.