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Sunday, September 9, 2018

Sentimental Church (Record) Sunday: St. Vincent de Paul, Chicago: Interior, Stained Glass I

Last Sunday I wrote about the exterior of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Chicago, where my Massmann great-grandparents, Frederick Henry Massmann, 1875-1948, and Elizabeth Regina Dienes Massmann, 1876-1946, were married on June 5, 1900.  This week I'll start writing about the interior.

Start, because it is incredibly beautiful and the friendly priest (from Texas!), who I met just after morning Mass on August 11, 2017, was fine with me taking lots of photos.  So I did.

My eye is always drawn first to stained glass windows.  I took a lot of pictures of the gorgeous stained glass windows in this church.  So many, that it will take three Sundays to post them here.

The German baroque windows were obtained from Franz Mayer & Company of Munich, Germany and installed after 1900 - so they weren't there when my Massmann great-grandparents were married.  Scenes from the life of Christ are above the altar (click on all photographs to make them larger):



The two on the far left represent the Annunciation to Mary and the Nativity of Jesus:



The two on the far right represent the Resurrection of Jesus and the Pentecost:



The central portion of the large window above the door on the east side of the church (the east transept) has a representation of Christ the King, with scenes from the lives of Saints Peter, Stephen, and Paul below it:



On the opposite site, above the west doors (the west transept), the round central portion is of the church namesake, St. Vincent de Paul, with scenes from his life below it:



 There are also four large windows in the church vestibule, although only two were easy to see and photograph.  One represents God the Father (Pater in Latin) at the top, with two Christograms below, IHC on the left and the Chi Rho on the right.



Another window represents God the Son (Filius in Latin), with symbols for the Sacred Heart and Precious Blood of Jesus below it.



Finally, the large rose window above the choir loft was added in 1955, after a fire damaged the original window at the south end of the church.  It was done by Conrad Schmitt Studios of New Berlin, Wisconsin.  According to their website, the 22-foot diameter window has "the theme ‘Sun of Splendor,’ symbolizing God and the blessings that radiate from Him. Eight doves represent the Beatitudes, while twelve angels holding stars symbolize the twelve Divine Praises [that existed in 1955; there are now 14]....The only painted areas are details of the angels’ faces and robes, and the wings of the doves."




More stained glass photos next Sunday!

© Amanda Pape - 2018 - click here to e-mail me.

2 comments:

  1. I have been told that my great grandmother, Margaret Ryan Hereley, donated one of the stained glass windows in this church in memory of her husband (my great-grandfather) Michael Hereley, who died suddenly of flu at age 45 in February 1899. He was the son of Irish immigrants, and, with his brothers, owned what may have been the largest hay warehouse in the world on Halsted Street. I've never been able to find the inscription which my late mother (Michael's and Margaret's granddaughter) told me about. No pics of or information about the inscriptions, I assume?

    Thanks,
    Patrick Marren
    Atlanta, GA
    (born and raised North Side of Chicago)

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    1. Hi Patrick - The only stained glass windows that I remember having inscriptions indicating the donors were the five high above the main altar. I can read four out of five in my original photos - but none of those are your great-grandmother. I cannot see the inscription on the window right in the middle, but there may be another photo out there where someone was able to get into a position to photograph its inscription. I would think, though, that the parish would have a record somewhere about who donated the windows, as my guess is that there were donors for all of them, even if there aren't inscriptions embedded in the glass. The contact info is here: https://stvdep.org/contact/.

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