Featured Window

Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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MSGC : Collections : Window

Window

Building Name: St. John's Episcopal Church

Studio Name: Lamb (J. and R.) Co.

City: Detroit

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

Date of Window: 1954

Subject/Title of Window: Jesus Calls the First Apostles

Brief Description of Subject: The grisaille glass in the upper part of the window is original to the window, and at one time, extended to the bottom. In their book "Detroit's Historic Places of Worship," Collum, Krueger, and Kostuch, thought the maker was likely Friederichs and Staffin (Detroit Stained Glass Works). In the canopy, the roundel features a bunch of grapes --- a symbol of the Holy Eucharist.

The original grisaille glass in the lower portion of this window was replaced in 1954 by the scene of Jesus calling his first Apostles as covered in Matthew 4:18 - 20 KJV:

"And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets and followed him."

In Mark's version of this story, Simon is the one kneeling. Also present were James and John, sons of Zebedee. Using artistic license, it is possible that the one kneeling in this scene is John --- he is the patron of this Church, his symbols appear above the scene, and he is the one Apostle that is traditionally depicted as beardless.

Fish are seen in the scriptural text panel --- appropriate for this scriptural passage.

At the top of the left panel is a chalice with a snake crawling out --- a symbol for the Apostle John. It is said, he once drank from a poisoned chalice, and when he blessed it, the poison changed into a snake. At the top of the right panel is an eagle, another symbol of John. This comes from the belief that the four winged creatures in Revelation 4:6, an ox, face of human, lion, and an eagle, are the Evangelists. John was the eagle as his Gospel, which stresses the divinity of Christ, soars like an eagle, upwards towards heaven.

In the predella are seen four anchor crosses and 8 ship's steering wheels. An anchor cross symbolizes the hope of eternal life through Christ --- Hebrew 6:19. A ship's wheel contains eight spokes. Using this shape, you can form each capital Greek letter in the Greek word "IXOYE" (fish) which is an acrostic for "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior."

Inscriptions: I will make you fishers of men
*1870 A.H. Thom †1954
1870 Maud Holmes Thom †1939


Condition of Window: good

Height: ~18'

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