The Stained-Glass Stories of the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul an Independent Study Project by Aidan Tait ’04

A Hundred-Year Narrative: The Stained-Glass Stories of the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul an Independent Study Project by Aidan Tait ’04 We are so fortunate to visit daily a place as sacred as this. -Rev. Kelly H. Clark, Ninth Rector of St. Paul’s School The Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul became the focal point of the campus upon its construction and consecration in 1888. Today the Chapel Tower pales only in comparison to the School’s power plant; its hourly bells can be heard from all over the campus. Both figuratively and literally, the building cannot be overlooked in the discussion of School history. And as St. Paul’s prepares to celebrate its 150th anniversary during the 2005-2006 academic year, the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul remains of utmost importance in the minds of alumni, faculty, and students alike. Each year the Rector receives new students to the School by welcoming into their Chapel seats; departing seniors use their last day in Chapel to sit in the very seats they occupied as new students. Indeed, the Chapel has a sort of aura about it—of both personal and School history—that makes it meaningful and unforgettable in the minds of those who live here. While taking photographs of the Chapel one Thursday during Spring Term, I met a man from Boston who commuted daily through the area and had decided that afternoon to tour the Big Chapel. He came up to me, his eyes wide with the experience of taking in the building for the first time. I remember having the same look on my face the day I toured St. Paul’s four years ago. The stained-glass windows are greatly responsible for the ethereal feel of the building; hundreds of historical Church figures line the walls of the building, their glass caricatures the gifts of generous Alumni. Only one window embellished the Chapel walls in 1888— twenty windows are now present in the Chapel today. Their presence itself inspires awe, but their extensive contents demand that we understand both the Biblical and historical significance of each window as well as its importance in the lives of St. Paul’s students. Their stories pertain to the history of the School; the examples offered in these windows only expand upon the educational process advocated and practiced at St. Paul’s. The windows, then, are an active extension of the very policies and morals that have guided this School during its first 150 years. I hope this book offers you a sense of understanding, but more importantly, produces the awestruck feeling I saw in both myself and in the man from Boston as we watched the Chapel for the first time. Aidan Tait ‘04 Spring 2004 2 Acknowledgments I began this project after Dr. Erickson approached me in the spring of my Fifth Form year. He asked me if I would be interested in writing a booklet on the Chapel, one that would figure into the School’s celebration of the sesquicentennial in 2005-2006. The project dominated the winter and spring of Sixth Form, requiring extensive research, reading, writing, and editing. That said, I spent numerous hours bothering people within the School community, asking them for their help in various stages of the project. I would like to thank Dr. Erickson, whose guidance throughout this process has allowed me to meet my deadlines; Mr. Rocklin, whose encouragement and optimism was instrumental; Mr. Wardrop, for being positive and providing me a very important book which I used until it fell apart (literally); Mr. Rettew and Mr. Levesque, for prying open the doors to the Library Archives; Rev. Kelly Clark, who sat in the Chapel with me for over an hour and whose words became the focal point of my project; Mr. Audet, who never questioned why I spent so many hours in the Chapel with my camera; and my father, whose enormous bookshelf contained more books helpful to this project than I could have imagined. I would also like to thank Bowman Dickson ‘05, whose help and patience in laying out this book transformed everything about the document. 3 All Biblical citations in this book are derived from the New Revised Standard Ver sion (NRSV) of The Holy Bible. Other cited works include: Crim, Keith R. The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Volumes 1-5. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1981. Dionysus of Aeropagite. The Celestial Hierarchy Online. (http:// www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeII/CelestialHierarchy.html). The Catholic Encyclopedia Online (www.newadvent.org). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 3rd Ed. Ed. Cross, Livingstone. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2rd Ed. Ed. Cross, Livingstone. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. 4 The Jesus Windows Window One in memory of K.W. Arnoux, Nicoll Ludlow, and James Armstrong, all of the Form of 1889 Lancet 1: The Annunciation The Nativity Window derives its contents from the Gospel of Luke and the Gos- pel of Matthew. In the upper left lancet, the angel Gabriel descends upon Mary, inform- ing her that she is to bear a son: “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greet- ings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’…The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for- ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end’” (Luke 1: 26-28, 30-33) Lancet 2: Mary’s visit to Elizabeth Following the angel’s visit, Mary visited her pregnant relative Elizabeth, who would soon be the mother of John the Bap- tist. The Gospel of Luke maintains that Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months (Luke 1:56), probably preparing her for the birth of John the Baptist, which oc- curs in Luke 1:57. When Mary arrived, Elizabeth’s “child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb’” (Luke 41-42). These Bible verses have since become part of the Catholic Rosary. Window One: Lancet Two. 5 Lancet 3: The Nativity Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem soon after the birth of John the Baptist. Here, Mary and Joseph kneel before their newborn son. “She gave birth to her newborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7). Lancet 4: The Visit of the Wise Men One of the most popular Biblical stories, the visit of the Three Wise men has inspired numerous Christmas hymns. In Matthew 2, Herod orders the wise men to find Jesus and tell him of the baby’s location, “so that [he] might also go and bring him homage” (Mat- thew 2:8). In fact, King Herod sought to kill Jesus, for he was christened the King of the Jews immediately following his birth. As the wise men set out to find Jesus, they followed “the star they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On enter- ing the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh” (Matthew 2:9-11). After their visit, the wise men took a different road back to their home city, for they had been warned in a dream to withhold Jesus’ location from King Herod. Window One: Lancet 3. 6 Lancet 5: Mary and Joseph’s flight into Egypt. After an angel visited Joseph in a dream and told him “‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him” (Matthew 2:13), Mary and Joseph took their child and fled Bethlehem. Herod ordered dead all children in Bethlehem who were under two years old. Jesus, however, es- caped the massacre on Joseph’s donkey, and returned to Israel only after an angel had informed Joseph of Herod’s death. Window One: A detailed view of Lancets 5 and 6. Lancet 6: Jesus among the doctors The final lancet of the Nativity Window shows Jesus’ early activity in the Church. When Mary and Joseph traveled to Jerusa- lem to celebrate Passover, Jesus remained there even after his par- ents had left the city. “After [searching for] three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amaz- ing at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:46-47). His mother, anxious at his disappearance, remarked to him, “‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety” (Luke 2:48).

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