Featured Window

Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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MSGC : Collections : Window

Window

Building Name: St. Florian Catholic Church

City: Hamtramck

Window Shape: 2 (rectangle)

Subject/Title of Window: Purification

Brief Description of Subject: Description: Each sacristy window contains symbols of the important days celebrated throughout the liturgical year starting with Advent. This is the 4th window in that series and contains symbols for the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple which is celebrated on February 2nd. This story is covered in Luke 2:22-38. By Jewish law a woman is unclean after child birth and must be purified. If the child is a first born male he must be redeemed from God. The ceremonies take place in the temple 40 days after the birth; payment for this ceremony is a lamb or if they can't afford it 2 doves can be substituted. When the First Family came to the temple at the stipulated time a man named Simeon was there. He had been promised by God that he would not die until he had seen the Savior; when he saw Jesus he proclaimed "God, you can dismiss me now." Simeon then told Mary that her child will do great things but that she would suffer greatly like a sword through her soul. Pictured in this window is a Tau (T-shaped Greek letter) - Rho (P -shaped Greek letter) cross. The loop of the "P" is visualized as Christ's head -- this is one of the oldest symbols for the crucifixion. On the vertical section of the cross is a heart (soul) with a sword through it. Below this is a basket that contains 2 doves.

Inscriptions: PURIFICATION


Height: ~6.5'

Width: 18"

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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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