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Window of the Month
Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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Window

Building Name: St. Florian Catholic Church

City: Hamtramck

Window Shape: 3 (arched)

Subject/Title of Window: St. Therese of Lisieux with Pope Leo XIII

Brief Description of Subject: Background and Description: This church had a special design for a shrine to St. Therese (see floor plan). She was a Carmelite nun that took the name Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and Holy Face. She is better known as "Little Flower". She died at the age of 24 in 1897. Two years after her death, her autobiography, called "Story Of A Soul" was published. It took the Catholic world by storm  and she was fast tracked to sainthood which happed in 1926 -- the year construction was started on this Church. The inscription on  this window is a quote from her autobiography concerning an incident that she describes in the book. Therese had tried to enter the Carmelite Order but was denied because she did not meet the age requirement. On a pilgrimage to Italy with students they had a general audience with Pope Leo XIII. She asked the Pope to let her be admitted to the Carmelites. The Pope told her to listen to what had already been decided. She pleaded "HOLY FATHER, IF YOU HAD SAID YES, ALL AGREE WITH YOU." The Pope then declared "Well, well, ascend if God wants it." She was then able to become a Carmelite at age 15. Window is depicting Therese kneeling before Leo XIII and pleading her case.

Inscription: "OJCZE SWIETY GDYBYS PZEKL (sic) TAK, WSZYSCY SIE ZGODZA". (The word "PZEKL" should have been "RZEKL")
Translation from Polish: "Holy Father, if you had said yes, all agree with you."

St. Therese of Lisieux and Pope Leo XIII
St. Therese of Lisieux and Pope Leo XIII
St. Therese of Lisieux and Pope Leo XIII close-up
St. Therese of Lisieux and Pope Leo XIII close-up
St. Therese of Lisieux and Pope Leo XIII inscription
St. Therese of Lisieux and Pope Leo XIII inscription
St. Therese of Lisieux and Pope Leo XIII outside
St. Therese of Lisieux and Pope Leo XIII outside

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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