Featured Window

Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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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: St. James the Less (James Minor)

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 church with a modern styled church which opened in 1957.They moved the stained glass windows to the new church. This window is now located on the second level of the facade, which features the Apostles.

This is the "St. James the Lesser Window" and is bordered with geometric patterns as well as pictures of animals, boats, angels, buildings etc.

The top level depicts an angel holding a shield with a picture of a windmill. For many centuries the windmill has been the main attribute of James, but it is not known why. The best explanation by scholars is that he was killed by a fullers's club. By medieval times fulling was no longer done with clubs but by using a water mill. Purely by mistake, a stained glass window put a windmill instead of a watermill as his symbol and since that time has remained his symbol.

Below this is the figure of James holding a book with the inscription "Gloria In Excelsis." This book could refer to his authorship of the "Liturgy of St. James" --- one of the oldest of its kind and still used, although primarily in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Above his figure is s scene depicting his martyrdom --- beaten to death with a club.

No longer visible is a memorial inscription. Church records show the window had been given in memory of Olney Bush, as a gift from his wife and son, Mrs. Olney Bush and Robert Bush and dedicated on May 16, 1943.

Inscriptions: Gloria In Excelsis
St. James the Lesser


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.

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