Featured Window

Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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MSGC : Collections : Window

Window

Building Name: St. Mary Catholic Church

City: Royal Oak

Window Shape: 3 (arched)

Subject/Title of Window:  Holy Virgin of Virgins

Brief Description of Subject: This clerestory window is one of 17 windows illuminating titles for the Virgin Mary found in the Litany of Loreto. The title pictured here is "Holy Virgin of Virgins."

Pictured are three lily petals bound together near their bases. The suitability of this symbol for "Holy Virgin of Virgins" is described in the 1750 book "The Illustrated Litany of Loreto" by Franz Xavier Dornn and illuminated by the Klauber Studio. The book was translated in 1878 from Latin by Thomas Canon Pope.

Holy Virgin of Virgins
The daughters saw her, and declared her most blessed. Cant. vi. 8

The virginity of Mary is here symbolically represented under the type of a lily, to signify her triple virginity, namely, the virginity she enjoyed before parturition, the virginity which she retained during parturition, and the virginity which she preserved after parturition. It is in regard to this triple and pre-eminently perfect virginity that not only these words may be attributed to her: "Una est columba mea, perfecta mea --- One is my dove, my perfect one;" but, moreover, the Church venerates and invokes her as the Virgin of Virgins.

Height: 10'

Width: 4'

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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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