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: Refuge of Sinners

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 "Refuge of Sinners."

Pictured is what appears to be a date Palm tree in an oasis with a church.

An oasis is considered a place of refuge. For example in the Old Testament, to flee from King Saul, David found safety at an oasis called En Gedi (1 Samuel 23:29).

The artist's intention for the inclusion of a Church is unclear. It could be that the Blessed Virgin Mary is used as a symbol of the Church. Another possibility is a church can be considered a place of refuge. The area around the altar in the Old testament was a place of refuge (1Kings 1:50). In Christian communities the area around the altar is a sacred space or sanctuary and became a place of refuge as one would be given protection from arrest if one was in the sanctuary.

An example of Mary as the "Refuge of Sinners" is the story of Theophilus, a sixth Century priest who was removed from office by the bishop. A legend arose that Theophilus signed a contract for his soul with the devil to get his job back. Eventually realizing his mistake, he sought the Blessed Virgin Mary to intercede with her Son to cancel the contract. In Medieval times the story became very popular and appeared in illuminated manuscripts, sculpture (i.e. north transept portal of Notre Dame in Paris), as well as stained glass (i.e. Cathedral of Beauvais).

Height: 10'

Width: 4'

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