Stained Glass Windows

Stained glass windows are often viewed as translucent pictures. The Gothic, or Medieval windows are a complex mosaic of bits of colored glass joined in an intricate pattern illustrating biblical stories and saint’s lives. The Medieval man “experienced a window more than he read it.” To him, it made the church a “special, sacred dwelling place of an all-powerful God.”

The Holy Family

The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Joseph. Veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the first bishop of New France who founded a Confraternity. The Feast of the Holy Family is a liturgical celebration in the Catholic Church and some Anglican Churches in honor of Jesus, his mother, and his legal father, Saint Joseph, as a family. The primary purpose of this feast is to present the Holy Family as a model for Christian families.

Archangel Raphel

St. Raphael is one of the seven Archangels who stand before the throne of the Lord, and one of the only three mentioned by name in the Bible. Raphael’s name means “God heals”.

St. Jude

St Jude is the Patron Saint of Hope and impossible causes. One of Jesus’ original twelve Apostles, he preached the Gospel with great passion, often in the most difficult circumstances. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, he made profound differences in people’s lives as he offered them the Word of God. The Gospel tells us that St. Jude was a brother of St. James the Less, also one of the Apostles. St. Jude is traditionally depicted carrying the image of Jesus in his hand.

St. Therese

Therese Martin was the last of nine children born to Louis and Zelie Martin on January 2, 1873, in Alencon, France. At age 15, she entered the Carmelite convent in Lisieux to give her whole life to God. She took the religious name Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. Living a hidden, simple life of prayer, she was gifted with great intimacy with God. After a long struggle with tuberculosis, she died on September 30, 1897, at the age of 24.

Our Lady of Grace

Our Lady of Graces is the patron saint of the diocese of Faenza. According to a legend, in 1412, the Virgin Mary appeared to a local woman. Mary was holding broken arrows symbolizing protection against God’s wrath and promised an end to the plagues. There are thousands of artistic images of Mary. The image on the stained glass window dates back to the middle ages.

St. Ignatius of Loyola

St. Ignatius of Loyola was a Spanish priest and theologian who founded the Jesuit order in 1534 and was one of the most influential figures in the Counter-Reformation. Known for its missionary, educational, and charitable works, the Jesuit order was a leading force in the modernizing of the Roman Catholic Church.

St. Patrick

St. Patrick is one of the world’s most popular saints. He was born in Roman Britain and when he was fourteen, he was captured by Irish pirates during a raiding party and taken to Ireland as a slave to tend sheep. During this time he became extremely religious. He considered his kidnapping and imprisonment as punishment of this lack of faith and spent a lot of time in prayer. After a vision let him to stow away on a boat bound for Britain, Patrick escaped back to his family. There he had a dream that the Irish were calling him back to Ireland to tell them about God. This inspired him to return to Ireland as a priest and his studies took him to France where he trained in a monastery. It was some 12 years before he returned to Irish shores as a bishop sent with the Pope’s blessing.

St. Mary Magdalene

St. Mary Magdalene is one of the greatest saints of the Bible and a legendary example of God’s mercy and grace. The precise dates of her birth and death or unknown, but we do know she was present with Christ during his public ministry, death and resurrection. She is mentioned at least a dozen times in the Gospels.

St. Francis of Assisi

St. Francis was born 1181 in Assisi, Italy. St Francis was founder of the Franciscan orders of the Friars Minor (Ordo Fratrum Minorum), the women’s Order of St. Clare (the Poor Clares), and the lay Third Order. He was also a leader of the movement of evangelical poverty in the early 13th century. His evangelical zeal, consecration to poverty, charity, and personal charisma drew thousands of followers. Francis’s devotion to the human Jesus and his desire to follow Jesus’ example reflected and reinforced important developments in medieval spirituality. The Poverello (“Poor Little Man”) is one of the most venerated religious figures in Roman Catholic history, and he and St. Catherine of Siena are the patron saints of Italy. In 1979 Pope John Paul II recognized him as the patron saint of ecology and more commonly known as the patron saint of animals.

The Visitation

Visitation, the visit, described in the Gospel According to Luke (1:39–56), made by the Virgin Mary, pregnant with the infant Jesus, to her cousin Elizabeth. At the sound of Mary’s greeting, the pregnant Elizabeth felt the infant St. John the Baptist leap in her womb, which, according to later doctrine, signified that he had become sanctified and cleansed of original sin.

God Give Us Peace

This window was installed in the Church in memory of 27-year-old Lt. Raymond Leonard Frese, of Scarsdale, NY, who was killed on April 6, 1944, shortly before the end of World War II. The Freese family was personal friends of Father Richard Washington who served as Pastor of the Shrine of the Sacred Heart from 1923 to 1958.