For years, patients, visitors and employees have passed beneath the outstretched arms of Christus Consolator, the 10.5-foot statue of Jesus Christ housed beneath The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s iconic dome. Every day, countless prayers, blessings and thanksgivings are made at the feet of this awe-inspiring sculpture.

Now, a portrait of the man who funded the statue has found a place of honor, just steps away.

In 1815, 18-year-old William Wallace Spence (who would become the statue’s benefactor) immigrated to the United States from Edinburgh, Scotland, with only $100 in his pocket. He became a successful Baltimore businessman and, after retirement, a prominent local philanthropist.

Baltimore society was shocked when the university opened in 1876 with no religious affiliation, as was customary for the time, prompting several news publications to question what kind of university it would become. At the hospital’s opening 13 years later, university President Daniel Gilman avoided any similar criticism by asking for “some friend of this hospital” to fund the installation of a replica of the Christus Consolator statue in Copenhagen.

A close friend of Mr. Johns Hopkins, Spence donated the funds to complete the statue—referenced by many as the “Divine Healer”—and it was unveiled on Oct. 14, 1896. Board of Trustees President W.T. Dixon commented that the statue’s arms reached out not only to those in attendance, “but they will remain extended to tens of thousands of the generations yet to come.” And so they have.

Fast forward 122 years to when the medical complex has become not only a hospital, but also a place of healing and hope.

In July 2018, nearly two dozen of Spence’s descendants gathered for a ceremony in the hospital’s Billings Building, where a portrait of Spence had been hung in close proximity to the statue.

In her remarks, Johns Hopkins Hospital Chief of Staff Nicki McCann said, “Each time I pass by the statue, I see a new person pausing for a moment. Here, these moments symbolize hope.”

Local artist Thomas Corner painted the portrait of Spence in 1906 in recognition of his philanthropy to the Baltimore community. After his death, the portrait remained in the family until Barbara Bennett, a great-great-granddaughter of Spence, offered it to the hospital in 2013.

As the portrait was passed from generation to generation, Spence’s charitable nature seemed to follow it. By the time the 107-year-old portrait reached the hospital, it was in need of conservation. John “Jack” Wharton, a great-great-grandson of Spence, funded the portrait’s restoration so that it could hang alongside the statue.

At the portrait’s unveiling, Spence’s descendants also took a moment to remember Wharton, who passed away just weeks before the ceremony.

Wharton once said, “My goal in life is to make someone each day feel a little better.” Perhaps Spence, his great-great-grandfather, knew all along about the healing power of the statue and how each day it could make someone feel a little better.