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Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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MSGC : Collections : Window

Window

Building Name: First United Methodist Church of Dearborn

City: Dearborn

Window Shape: 5 (gothic arched, 2 vertical sections)

Subject/Title of Window: Simon and Nathaniel

Brief Description of Subject: Simon “The Zealot”
Simon was a sworn enemy of Rome. No record exists of his first meeting with Jesus. No words Simon spoke is recorded in the Bible. All we have is his name. Simon means, “heard”. Every listing of the Disciples places him in the eleventh place. Only Judas Iscariot follows his name. In Leonardo da Vincus painting of the Last Supper the artist puts Simon to the far let, appearing to have difficulty holding his place. But he stuck with Jesus.  Tradition claims Simon traveled to Britain, Iberia, Persia and back o Jerusalem. He was martyred, either by crucifixion or he was sawed asunder. He became the patron of works with wood and tanners. The symbol in this window at the top show a hammer (wood workers) a saw (by which he was slain) and paddle (used by tanners in dying cloth). The base of the window portrays men looking heavenward to a star, waiting for their God given leader to appear from God, not Rome. The central figure of the window shows Simon lapsing the law to his breast and holding a fish in his hand. The letters in the Greek word for fish, Ichthus, are sacred acrostic for the five Greek words that means “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior”

Nathaniel Bartholomew
Nathaniel means “God has given”. Bartholomew means, Son of Salmai” Jesus pronounced him an Israelite indeed, in whom s no guile (John :47). Can anything good come out of Nazareth? (John 1:46) is the famous query revealing a prejudice. He as praying beneath a fig tree when he met Jesus. After Jesus’s death, he went fishing with the disciples. This leads some to assume he had been a fisherman. The emblem at the one of the window is the fig tree with the fruit and leaf. This tree grew to a height of twenty to thirty feet, spreading like a vine. It provided shade as well as food. The window portrays Nathanial holding a sharp knife in hand. Tradition claims he served in Arabia, Armenia, and India. He suffered martyrdom by being skinned alive and then was beheaded-the Persian method of capital punishment.

Condition of Window: Good

Height: 17'

Width: 6.5'

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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