For much of the winter, he was a familiar sight working every day on the Ave Maria University mall, often highly visible because of the plume of white dust rising from the Carrara marble that he was forming into what’s believed to be the largest bas-relief of The Annunciation in the world.

Márton Váró completed the first panel for the 35-foot sculpture, the bust and head of Mary (left), in May. To avoid working outside in the summer heat of southwest Florida, he’s been spending the summer creating the other parts of the bas-relief that will adorn the oratory. The work, he says, is proceeding on schedule.

“I have to work in the woods, literally,” he told The Ave Herald, “wearing a mask 9 to 10 hours a day.”

His place in the woods is next to the quarry in Carrara, Tuscany, the source of the marble for the Ave Maria sculpture, which came from the same part of the quarry as the marble for Michelangelo’s David and Pieta.

Mr, Váró will continue working in Italy through October and expects to be back in Ave Maria in the first part of November.