Photos by Rob Varela / Star staff The Rev. James Blantz blesses the peace pole erected in the Peace Garden at St. Catherine by the Sea, a Ventura retirement home for retired and semiretirned nuns.

"May peace prevail on Earth."

It acts as a silent prayer, that simple statement and the ultimate goal of the newest "peace pole" in Ventura County, which was dedicated this month at St. Catherine by the Sea in Ventura, a home for retired and semiretired nuns.

It is, in fact, the goal of all 200,000 or so peace poles that have been erected and dedicated worldwide.

The Peace Pole Project is the work of worldpeace.org.

A peace pole is a handcrafted monument that displays the prayerful message, "May Peace Prevail on Earth" on each of its four or six sides, usually in different languages.

There are more than 200,000 peace poles in 180 countries dedicated as monuments to peace, according to worldpeace.org.

"They serve as constant reminders for us to visualize and pray for world peace," the Web site states.

The dedication of the pole at St. Catherine's was joyous, said Sister Patricia Gantz, a semiretired nun and a spokeswoman for the home.

"Oh, it was wonderful," she said. "We put the peace pole in the peace garden. We had constructed a garden there" on the grounds, she said, explaining the point of the peace pole is "also to be peacemakers for the Earth, so it's about ecology, too.

"Basically, the call is to be nonviolent in our environment, to be nonviolent in our words, in our thoughts and in the way we treat each other and the way we treat the Earth," Gantz said.

"The ultimate purpose is to remind ourselves, those of us who live there, that peace is a priority in our life," she said.

About 40 attended the dedication June 7.

"We are happy to have it here," Gantz said.

Peace poles generally are 8 feet tall, with the bottom "planted" in the ground, although many indoor peace poles are supported by stands, says worldpeace.org. They may be constructed from any material that is environmentally sound. In the United States, most peace poles are made from western red cedar, a wood that is a renewable resource.

Peace poles may be made from any local hard wood, or from plastic or metal.

The poles can be found almost anywhere in simple places, such as churches and gardens, and extraordinary ones, such as at the Pyramids of El Giza, Egypt or the magnetic North Pole in Canada. And now, at a retirement home for nuns in Ventura.

"Whatever the location, the presence of a peace pole announces that this is a special place, dedicated to peace on Earth," worldpeace.com states.