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Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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MSGC : Collections : Window

Window

Building Name: Saints Constantine And Helen Greek Orthodox Church

Studio Name: Willet Hauser Architectural Glass

City: Westland

Window Shape: other

Date of Window: 1996

Subject/Title of Window: Saints Constantine and Helen

Brief Description of Subject: St. Helen (250 - 329) married Constantius Chlorus who became the Roman emperor. They had a son named Constantine. When Chlorus died Constantine became the emperor and he gave her the title "Augustus." She devoted her life to doing good deeds. In 326 she made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and on Golgotha she found the true cross and nails used in the Crucifixion. She had her son build the Church of The Holy Sepulchre on that site.
 
St. Constantine (272 - 337) was one of the most consequential figures in the history of the Christian Church. He became Emperor in 306 upon the death of his father. As Constantine told Eusebius, the day before an important battle in 312, he saw a light in the sky in the shape of a cross with the words (in Greek) "by this conquer." That night he had a vision where Christ told him to place on his labarium (standard) the superimposed Greek letters Chi and Rho (first two letters of the Greek word for "Christ."), and he will win the battle. In 313 Constantine and his co-emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan that legitimized the Christian religion through the empire. Constantine called for a counsel that in 325 issued the first version of the Nicene Creed. He was baptized on his deathbed in 337.
 
The mosaic pictures Constantine and Helen costumed as royalty wearing their crowns. Constantine is holding a scepter, a symbol of his authority as emperor, and Helen holds a platter with the four nails from Christ's crucifixion. The cross that Constantine is holding is the Greek Orthodox Cross. The bar across the top is where the initials "INBI" (Greek version) that Pilate had inscribed were placed. These are the initials for "Jesus Christ, King of the Jews." The bar at the bottom for the footrest is slanted upwards towards heaven for the good thief that came to believe in Christ and downwards towards hell for the other thief that did not come to believe in Christ.  
 
The choir loft cuts the stained glass window in two. The choir loft photo shows a picture propped up against the back of the mosaic. The bottom photos were taken from a small vestibule leading to the narthex, this confined space necessitated the use of a wide angle lens which causes barrel distortion --- the sides are curved like a barrel.

Inscriptions: CONSTANTINE AND HELEN (Greek letters)


Height: 27'; Mosaic 11'

Width: 22'; Mosaic 5'

Type of Glass and Technique: Slab or Faceted Glass (Dalle de Verre)

The MSGC is a constantly evolving database. Not all the data that has been collected by volunteers has been sorted and entered. Not every building has been completely documented.

All images in the Index are either born-digital photographs of windows or buildings or are scans of slides, prints, or other published sources. These images have been provided by volunteers and the quality of the material varies widely.

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