Featured Window

Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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MSGC : Collections : Window

Window

Building Name: St. Mary's of Redford Church

City: Redford

Window Shape: 3 (arched)

Subject/Title of Window: Virgin Most Venerable

Brief Description of Subject: The clerestory windows are designed to let light into the Church and all have the same design --- a wide border of stylized lilies and three medallions. The center medallion will contain a symbol for an avocation found in the Litany of Loreto. The avocation in this window is "Virgin most venerable, Pray for us."

Picture in the center is the top of the back and cushion of a throne with a crown resting on it, and a sword behind it. The crown with fleur-de-lis, flower symbolizing her virginity, is Mary's crown that awaits her in heaven --- Revelation 2:10 "Be thou faithful until death, and I will give thee the crown of life." The sword with a fleur-de-lis hilt is from Simeon's words to Mary at the Presentation --- Luke 2:35 "Thy own soul a sword shall pierce." The suitability of this picture as a symbol for the avocation is described in the 1750 book "The Illustrated Litany of Loreto" by Franz Xavier Dornn and illuminated by the Klauber Studio. Translated from Latin by Thomas Canon Pope:

VIRGIN MOST VENERABLE
Beatam me dicent omnes generationes. --- Luce, i. 48
All nations shall call me blessed

Solomon ever held his mother, Bethsabee, in very great veneration, for the Holy Scripture asserts that, when he beheld her approaching: Surrexit rex in occursum ejus --- "the king stood up to meet her" and ordered that a throne be erected for her. In a similar manner, the divine Solomon, Christ, ascended into heaven many years before the assumption of Mary, for the purpose, as it were, of preparing a glorious triumph and throne for his Mother, who venerabilis et sancta est --- who is truly venerable and holy.

Now, as in heaven the highest honour is conferred on Mary by the angels and heavenly citizens, so is she also revered and invoked on earth by almost every nation, according to the text: Beatam me dicent omnes generationes --- All nations shall call me blessed.

Height: 64"

Width: 36"

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