Featured Window

Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

Click any image to enlarge.

MSGC : Collections : Window

Window

Building Name: St. John's Episcopal Church

Studio Name: Willet Hauser Architectural Glass

City: Royal Oak

Window Shape: 2 (rectangle)

Date of Window: 1943

Subject/Title of Window: Parable of the Good Samaritan, Panel 1

Brief Description of Subject: This window was designed for this parish's Gothic styled church which opened in 1926. Subsequently the congregation needed a larger church and replaced this with a modern styled church which opened in 1957, and moved their stained glass windows to the new Church. This window is located on the second level of the Gospel side transept.

The "Parable of the Good Samaritan Window," was originally a four panel window. At the top of each panel is the name of a different parable which can be found in the Gospel of Luke. Each panel, starting at the left and moving right, pictures a distinct scene from the Parable of the Good Samaritan as found in Luke 10:25 - 37. At the top of each scene is an inscription from that parable (KJV), which tells what scene is depicted below. The four panels were united by the inscription (KJV) across the bottom: Verse 27, "Love thy Lord thy God with all thy heart, ... and love thy neighbor as thyself," and Verse 37, "Do thou likewise." The borders consist of geometrical patterns, birds, angels, and miniature scenes. The new church was simply not designed to accommodate this window, and it was split up into four individual windows. Thus it can no longer be viewed as the artist intended.

This is panel #1.
At the top level is a sower of seeds. This is the "Parable of the Sower," which is found at Luke 8:4 -15.

In the arch of the lower part of the panel is found a small scene which pictures the background for the parable, Verses 25 - 29: (paraphrasing) A lawyer to test Jesus asked "to inherit eternal life I must follow the Law --- Love thy Lord my God with all my heart and love my neighbor as myself, but who is my neighbor?" Jesus responded with the Parable of the Good Samaritan about a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. The inscription in the arch, "A certain man fell among thieves" (Verse 30), tells what is depicted in the scene below. Note the city in the background would be Jerusalem, the city the man had started from. At the bottom of the scene is depicted St. Luke writing his Gospel, which contains this parable.

The memorial inscription at the very bottom of the panels has been removed to allow the window to fit into its new location. Church records indicate the four panels that made up the original window were donated in memory of Joseph M. Smith and as a tribute to Mrs. Ella Smith, Mr. Fred I. Packard, and Mrs. Ida Packard by their son and daughter, respectively, Mr. and Mrs. Leo W. Smith, and dedicated on July 25, 1943.

Inscriptions: Sower
A Certain man fell among thieves
Love the Lord thy God


Condition of Window: Good

Type of Glass and Technique: Lead Came

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.

If you have any questions, additions or corrections, or think you can provide better images and are willing to share them, please contact donald20@msu.edu