Rensselaer Adventures

This blog reports events and interesting tidbits from Rensselaer, Indiana and the surrounding area.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Stained glass at St. Joseph's Chapel (2 of 3)

The first part of this series showing the stained glass windows in the Saint Joseph's College Chapel is here.

The five windows on the west wall begin with a large windows showing Jesus as a child in the temple (Luke 2:42-51). It was "donated by Rev. August Young."
Opposite St. Catherine is St. Rose of Lima, who died in 1617 in Peru and is the first American to be canonized. The window dedication state, "Donated by Mr. R. H. Williams."
 
Below is a closeup of the window. She became a Dominican nun and died at the age of 31.
 
In most of the pictures of these windows, you cannot see the decorations in the windows above the saints. Here is a better view of what that area of the windows looks like. However, these pictures do not do justice to the actual windows. You need to see them as they are.
 
Another saint who died young was St. John Berchmans. He joined the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and was studying to become a priest when he died. The dedication of this window states, "Donated by students. C.P.P.S.) As I recall, the windows on the west of the chapel were more severely damaged by the wind in 1998 or 1999 than those on the east. All of them have had to be restored.
 
St. Philip Neri founded a society for diocesan priests. He died in 1595. The window dedication says "Donated by Geo. J. and Rev. Wm. Arnold."
 
The last of the windows on the west side is of St. Lawrence, a deacon who was martyred about 258. Like St. Catherine, little is actually known about him, but there are extensive legends and stories about his life and death.  The dedication is "In memory of Edward J. Pryor." Fr Robbins in his Chronology explains that Edward Pryor was scheduled to be the valedictorian of the class of 1906, but died the day before.
 
I can not find any connecting theme in these five windows, but there may be one.

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