Featured Window

Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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MSGC : Collections : Window

Window

Building Name: St. John Cantius Catholic Church (closed 2007)

Studio Name: Detroit Stained Glass Works, The

City: Detroit

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

Subject/Title of Window: Visitation

Brief Description of Subject: The Visitation window has been repurposed and now resides at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Troy.

The Visitation is the second of the Joyous Mysteries of the Rosary. After the Annunciation, in which an angel told Mary that her cousin Elizabeth, who is beyond child bearing years is to bear a child in 3 months, Mary visits Elizabeth. The visit is covered in Luke 1:39 - 56. Paraphrasing Luke, Mary tells Elizabeth what the angel had told her and the baby leapt inside Elizabeth's womb. This leap is taken that her baby (John the Baptist) has been absolved of original sin. Elizabeth responds to this joyous news with the words "Blessed art thou amongst woman and blessed is the fruit of thy womb". Mary responds (Luke 1: 46 - 55) with what is now called the "Magnificat" which comes from the start of her response "My soul doth magnify"  in Latin -- Magnificat mea anima. Through the ages many composers have set those words to music.
 
Description of window: At top is the initials "A.M" which I believe stands for "Ave Maria" -- Hail Mary. I speculate the donor was a confraternity dedicated to Mary. Mary is pictured with outstretched arms to a kneeling Elizabeth. The tree with ripe fruit probably symbolizes that Elizabeth is beyond the normal child bearing years. The lily plant next to Elizabeth is a symbol of purity.

Inscriptions: Inscription has been damaged. It starts out as "Ofiarowali Bractwo" which translates as "Donated by the Confraternity of". The damaged part is rather crudely filled in with non matching glass.

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