Featured Window

Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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MSGC : Collections : Window

Window

Building Name: St. James Episcopal Church

Studio Name: Lamb (J. and R.) Co.

City: Birmingham

Window Shape: 2 (rectangle)

Subject/Title of Window: Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit - St. Anne

Brief Description of Subject: This is the first of six aisle windows that use a Saint to illustrate one of the Beatitudes. The first Beatitude is "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" Matthew 5:3 KJV. "Poor in Spirit" is understood to mean --- knowing our Spiritual poverty, the need for God. For this window, St. Anne has been chosen to illustrate this Beatitude.
 
What we know about the Virgin Mary's childhood comes from Apocryphal literature. Her parents were Anne and Joachim. Like Hannah in the Old Testament, after Anne was beyond years for childbearing, and no children, she promised God if they had a child that when the child turned three they would give it to the priest in the Temple to raise.
 
In this window, St. Anne, costumed in red for love, is teaching Mary, dressed in her traditional blue for purity, to read the scriptures. Next to Anne is a white lily symbolizing purity.
 
In the predella is a picture of the Golden Gate of Jerusalem which according to tradition is the one Jesus used to enter Jerusalem. As an icon for Anne, it comes from a story in Chapter 3 of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. Joachim was making an offering in the Temple when he was told to leave as he was unworthy to be there as he was without children. Humiliated, he went out to the desert to pray. After forty days an angel appeared to him and told him that Anne was with a child that he had conceived. He was to return at once to his wife meeting her at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem as an angel had told her that he would meet her there. Thus the Mother of Jesus, while in Anne's womb, also entered Jerusalem through the Golden Gate. Also seen in the predella are three flowers. The symbolism of flowers usually comes from their colors, flowers left to right: Yellow or Gold for hope, White for purity, and Rose for rejoicing, usually a harbinger of an important event.

Inscriptions: St. Anne
Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit


Height: 57"

Width: 37"

Type of Glass and Technique: Antique or Cathedral Glass

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