SPV Blogging: Rose Window in the Afternoon

This will not be the only picture of this window on this blog. It is simply the first--I will take one from the sanctuary when I come around down there again, and I have a close up of it coming next. But I was up in the loft looking at other things and caught the afternoon sun on Saturday.

Fr. Mike used to call this our Resurrection window.

Arlene, a long time parishioner, told me on Saturday that her mother was a student at the school when the church was built. The school children were the donors for this window. At Pius, as opposed to so many churches I've been to, there aren't a bunch of little plaques explaining who footed the bill. I've been to Catholic churches--St. Joseph's in Macon, GA, comes to mind--where the notation was part of the stained glass. Forever and ever, Mrs. and Mrs. Harold Franklin, say, are connected to the Francis of Assisi window. (Side note: St. Joseph's is breathtaking. Their church photos put mine to terrible shame. If you like church pictures, go look...I have much to learn, but it makes me happy that someone is documenting their church as well--they have similar style (Munich) windows, but done by the Mayer Studio in Bavaria).

Anyway, to not be completely distracted by other churches I have known, St. Pius doesn't have this feature, except on a couple of the statues, which I would guess were added later in the church, although I need to find that out for sure before I say it definitively. I kind of like that the windows are so anonymous. It becomes less of a historical tour of dead parishioners and more of, well, a church. Sr. Mary is probably right--there were probably meetings with the Freis, ideas, hopes, options, realities all put down on the table. Money was collected but nobody said "This is MY window, I want it done like this."

So I would have had no clue that the school children, probably symbolically, put their pennies and nickels in the collection basket in 1915 or 16, saw pictures of what they were collecting for, and throughout their lives had a sense of ownership at St. Pius. A sense of ownership is good. But it's nice that I didn't already know--I had to be told by someone who knew the story.

There is a lot of story at Pius about the building. Sr. Dorothy was freaking out that I haven't written it all down yet. I guess I'd better get on that. Maybe I'll just hire a nanny now...or maybe, it will happen when it can, bit by bit. Like history.