The
Stained-glass Windows
In Saint Francis of Assisi Church
 The
stained-glass windows in Saint Francis of Assisi Church give a pictorial
account of the Holy Gospel. Each of the 33 windows tells its own part of
the story, beginning with The Annunciation at the front of the church
on the western side.
The story continues at the rear
of the church on the eastern side with The Resurrection and concludes
with the image of Christ the King at the front of the church.
In addition, four windows in the
old baptistery (now housing the Franciscan Centre Gift Shop) depict The
Baptism of Jesus, Philip and the Ethiopian, The Baptism of
the Emperor Constantine, and The Baptism of Saint Augustine.
Finally, one window above the organ
loft depicts Saint Cecilia, patron of music.
Along with each image on this page,
we present the Biblical (or other) text to which the window refers. |
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The
Baptism of Jesus
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Then
Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. John
tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet
you are coming to me?”
Jesus said to him in reply, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for
us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him.
After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens
were opened (for him), and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove
(and) coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This
is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew
3:13–17 |
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Philip
and the Ethiopian
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 Then
the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, “Get up and head south on the
road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route.” So he
got up and set out.
Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, that
is, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury, who had
come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning home. Seated in his chariot,
he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
The Spirit said to Philip, “Go and join up with that chariot.”
Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, “Do
you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless
someone instructs me?” So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him....
Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this scripture passage,
he proclaimed Jesus to him.
As they traveled along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said,
“Look, there is water. What is to prevent my being baptized?” Then
he ordered the chariot to stop, and Philip and the eunuch both went down
into the water, and he baptized him. When they came out of the water, the
Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more,
but continued on his way rejoicing. Philip came to Azotus, and went about
proclaiming the good news to all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
Acts
8:26–40 |
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The
Baptism of the Emperor Constantine
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 [There is a legend that Constantine
was baptized in Rome, 13 years before his death, by Pope Silvester I. But
according to the account of Eusebius of Caesarea (given below), Constantine
was baptized just before his death in 337; other historians support
Eusebius’ account and conclude that Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, performed
the baptism. This window apparently depicts Pope Silvester, who wears the
Pope’s tiara (triple crown), performing the baptism.]
Being at length convinced
that his life was drawing to a close, he felt the time was come at which
he should seek purification from sins of his past career, firmly believing
that whatever errors he had committed as a mortal man, his soul would be
purified from them through the efficacy of the mystical words and the salutary
waters of baptism.
Impressed with these thoughts, he poured forth his supplications and confessions
to God, kneeling on the pavement in the church itself, in which he also now
for the first time received the imposition of hands with prayer.
After this he proceeded as far as the suburbs of Nicomedia, and there, having
summoned the bishops to meet him, addressed them in the following words.
“The time is arrived which I have long hoped for, with an earnest desire
and prayer that I might obtain the salvation of God. The hour is come in
which I too may have the blessing of that seal which confers immortality;
the hour in which I may receive the seal of salvation. I had thought to do
this in the waters of the river Jordan, wherein our Saviour, for our example,
is recorded to have been baptized: but God, who knows what is expedient for
us, is pleased that I should receive this blessing here. Be it so, then,
without delay....”
After he had thus spoken, the prelates performed the sacred ceremonies in
the usual manner, and, having given him the necessary instructions, made
him a partaker of the mystic ordinance. Thus was Constantine the first of
all sovereigns who was regenerated and perfected in a church dedicated to
the martyrs of Christ; thus gifted with the Divine seal of baptism, he rejoiced
in spirit, was renewed, and filled with heavenly light: his soul was gladdened
by reason of the fervency of his faith, and astonished at the manifestation
of the power of God.
At the conclusion of the ceremony he arrayed himself in shining imperial
vestments, brilliant as the light, and reclined on a couch of the purest
white, refusing to clothe himself with the purple any more.
Eusebius of Caesarea
The Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine, LXI–LXII
Medieval
Sourcebook |
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The
Baptism of Saint Augustine
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 [In the year 397, at Easter,
after years of prayer by his mother Monica, Augustine finally received
baptism—along with his close friend Alypius and his illegitimate son,
Adeodatus—from Ambrose, bishop of Milan.]
When the time arrived
for me to give in my name, we left the country and returned to Milan. Alypius
also resolved to be born again in thee at the same time. He was already clothed
with the humility that befits thy sacraments, and was so brave a tamer of
his body that he would walk the frozen Italian soil with his naked feet,
which called for unusual fortitude. We took with us the boy Adeodatus, my
son after the flesh, the offspring of my sin. Thou hadst made of him a noble
lad. He was barely fifteen years old, but his intelligence excelled that
of many grave and learned men.... We took him for our companion, as if he
were the same age in grace with ourselves, to be trained with ourselves in
thy discipline. And so we were baptized and the anxiety about our past life
left us.
Nor did I ever have enough in those days of the wondrous sweetness of meditating
on the depth of thy counsels concerning the salvation of the human race.
How freely did I weep in thy hymns and canticles; how deeply was I moved
by the voices of thy sweet-speaking Church! The voices flowed into my ears;
and the truth was poured forth into my heart, where the tide of my devotion
overflowed, and my tears ran down, and I was happy in all these things.
Confessions IX,
VI:14 |
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St.
Cecilia at the Organ
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 [Since the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries she is given the organ as an attribute, or is represented as playing
on the organ, evidently to express what was often attributed to her in panegyrics
and poems ... that while the musicians played at her nuptials she sang in
her heart to God only.
—Catholic
Encyclopedia]
Saint Cecilia the holy
virgin was come of the noble lineage of the Romans, and from the time that
she lay in her cradle she was fostered and nourished in the faith of Christ,
and always bore in her breast the gospel hid, and never ceased day nor night
from holy prayers but recommended to God always her virginity.
And when this blessed virgin should be spoused to a young man named Valerian,
and the day of wedding was come, and was clad in royal clothes of gold, but
under she wore the hair[-shirt], and she hearing the organs making melody,
she sang in her heart only to God saying, “O Lord I beseech thee that
myn heart and body may be undefouled so that I be not confounded.”
William Caxton
The Golden Legend:
The Life of Saint Cecilia
|
 Part II: The
Eastern Windows |
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