Created in 1957, the sculpture resides in front of O’Shaughnessy Hall on the campus of the University of Notre Dame as part of the Shaheen-Mestrovic Memorial, which was completed in 1985 by the Department of Landscape Architecture and Planning in the South Bend office of Cole Associates.

[1] The marble and bronze sculpture depicts the events in John 4, in which Jesus converses and evangelizes to a woman from Samaria, with whom the Jews would not normally associate.

[5] During World War II, Mestrovic refused to cooperate with the “puppet” Croatian government set up by Adolf Hitler and the Axis powers.

In 1955, Mestrovic moved to the University of Notre Dame to be the sculptor-in-residence and a “Distinguished Professor”, where then-president, Father Theodore Hesburgh, built him a studio.

[3] A bronze copy of the statue, cast from the original molds with permission of Mestrovic's widow, was exhibited at the Vatican pavilion at the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition and is found today at the Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans.

[11] The piece itself has some visual wear, as the aging bronze has obtained a greenish tint over the years weathering snow, rain, and immense heat in the upper-midwestern South Bend.

The compositions for the two sculptures are quite similar, with two noticeable changes in the Notre Dame work, the position of the Samaritan woman's head and in a more relaxed attitude of Christ.

While garments in the 1927 works are diaphanous, clinging and enveloping the bodies and decorated with graceful and sinuous motifs, the 1957 forms present heavy folds, casually draped over the limbs.

Some student groups and residence halls hold prayer services, retreat activities, reflection time, or faith meetings by the statue.

In November 2016, Father John I. Jenkins, President of the University of Notre Dame, held an interfaith prayer service for the campus community in front of the statue.