A quote from Bermuda’s Story by Terry Tucker:
“On the north side of the nave in the Bermuda Cathedral in Hamilton you will see a stained-glass window picturing the storm on the sea of Galilee and the small boat struggling through mountainous waves. At the foot are the words: ‘In Memory of the First Settlers in these Islands and of their Historian, Sir John Henry Lefroy, K.C.M.G., sometime Governor of this Colony.’ This seems a meagre public reminder of a governor who did more for Bermuda than would seem possible for one man in the short span of a six-year tour of duty. To you who want to know the story of your home-land, no name can mean more than that of Lefroy who was Governor and Commander-in-Chief from 1871 to 1877.”
Category Archives: Stained Glass
Orval Abbey in Belgium
Stained glass windows in the chapel of the bishops, executed by Boquet, after the cartoons of Miss Margot Weemaes, who, for the same oratory, also made two frescoes. Discreetly historiated stained-glass windows, simple illuminations in short, illustrating themes from the life of Notre-Dame, they provide this chapel with maximum clarity.
Source: Quarterly review of sacred art published by the Benedictines of the Abbey of Saint-Andre (1947)
Limestone Roof Photo Archives
Orval Abbey
Related
MARGOT WEEMAES at M LEUVEN
Scattered
The title of this post seems appropriate. I am trying to pick up my re-reading of The Tempest from that wonderful recusant (and bane of the woke) William Shakespeare. My personal effects are still scattered to and from but hopefully soon I’ll be reunited with my lovely Eames desk and UK library. I have a lengthy post in draft form on Catholicism in England (was hoping to finish today on the Feast Day of Edward the Confessor) but my deadlines for this hobby are artificially imposed.
My other announcement is that I’m going to post one scan every day in 2023 from my rather eclectic collection of ephemera.
(1) FASHIONS IN STAINED GLASS
(2) Edward the Confessor and John the Evangelist (New Liturgical Movement)
“I ask you brothers, return to your king, and give him the message which I shall send by you. I am John, the Apostle and Evangelist, and I love the holy king Edward for his chastity, for I know him to be near to God.”
Weekend Pilgrimage
“O God, may we dwell with You in the gathering of Your holy people, the Church.”
I spent the weekend on pilgrimage in Walsingham at the Catholic National Shrine & Basilica of Our Lady. I’ll post photos (see updates) shortly but as a primer of the importance of Walsingham to England and to Catholics this video with Kevin Turley and Joseph Pearce is exceptional. My pilgrimage occurred during the feast of Christ the King on the last Sunday of Ordinary Time.
(1) A walk through Walsingham with Joseph Pearce (YouTube)
(2) Here’s the story of how the feast of Christ the King came about (Catholic News Agency)
(3) The Wilton Diptych at the National Gallery
(4) Our Lady of Walsingham Installed in Chapel of St George in Cathedral
(5) Converts of the Catholic Literary Revival – Featuring Joseph Pearce (YouTube)
(6) The Statue of Our Lady of Walsingham
(7) Prayer in reparation for the destruction of the Original Shrine in 1538
Heavenly Father, we pray in thanksgiving for the opportunity today of praying in the National Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham.
Heavenly Father, we pray in reparation for the untold sacrilege of the Mass and the Blessed Eucharist which was committed during the English Reformation.
Father, in Your mercy accept our prayer of reparation for the destruction by our ancestors of so much which was holy, and especially the dishonoring of Your holy and Blessed Mother Mary.
We praise and thank You and humbly ask You to hear and accept our prayers of reparation and intercession.
Our Lady of Walsingham, Our Lady of Reconciliation, we come before you in humble prayer and ask you to intercede for us and reconcile us with your Son Jesus and His Church. Lay before Him our prayer of reparation this day and obtain for us the graces of conversion of life, reconciliation with our enemies, especially those within our own families. May faith and peace return to our Nation and may it once again be proud to be knows as the Dowry of Mary. Amen.
Sources: Daily Meditations on the Psalms and Pilgrim Handbook: Celebrating the Joy of Mary at the Annunciation
Updates
Walsingham (Flickr)
Notes
Rented a car for this trip. Considered biking from Norwich but great British weather. This was some serious white knuckle motoring. It was easier driving in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany.
Weekend 503.0 (Three Cups Walk)
Spent the weekend in Ely/Cambridge. The highlight was The Stained Glass Museum in Ely. I’ve started an album on Flickr and will publish a proper post in the not so distant future. Amazingly there were NO references to E.W. Twining at the museum.
My two favorite stained glass windows from the collection were Christ The Good Shepherd (1913) designed and made by Karl Parsons and a Franciscan Boy and a Vision of Heaven (1931) designed and made by Margaret Edith Aldrich Rope. Margaret studied under Karl Parsons at Central School or Arts. The details and colors in both are exceptional and my photos include dozens of closeups.
The chalice in the design by Parsons sits on a beautiful blue and green background whilst the pink, red, and white in the halo connect the Son of God with the Resurrection. The contrast between light/dark in the Rope design is softened by two penitent angels (both bathed in yellow).
Other notable designs in the collection included Bird Quarry, St Paul Preaching at Athens, The Virgin Mary and Disciples at Christ’s Ascension, St Joseph and the Angel, and The Visitation. My favorite designs seem to focus on the Mysteries.
Notes
Sunday Mass and Rosary was at Our Lady of the Assumption and The English Martyrs.
*The images is a scan from The Stained Glass Museum: Highlights from the Collection
Weekend 499.0 (July 4th)
(1) Fig. 37 (cutline for the “Sir Galahad’s Vision” panel) – This is from The Art and Craft of Stained Glass by E.W. Twining.
(2) Embarkation of King Henry Fifth at Southampton. A.D. 1415 (Horizon Magazine)
(3) NY Islanders postscript from Lou Lamoriello
(4) Source content 1 and 2 for Weekend 498.1 colour swatch
(5) Genesis – Home By The Sea / Second Home By The Sea (Official Music Video) (YouTube)
Images of sorrow, pictures of delight
Things that go to make up a life
Endless days of summer longer nights of gloom
Waiting for the morning light
Scenes of unimportance, photos in a frame
Things that go to make up a life
(5) Kingdom Hearts Chaotic Storyline Is a GOOD Thing for the Franchise (CBR)
“There is also a degree of loneliness as they reach out to find something to grasp and nothing is there.”
*The image is from The Spirit of ’43 by the Walt Disney Company. It was a short released during WWII. I can’t imagine them producing something as patriotic today. It’s more likely it would be an ANTIFA, PRIDE, BLM, or CCP flag.
Weekend 494.1
(1) A quote from The Art and Craft of Stained Glass by E.W. Twining:
“To be able to design for glass, in colour, a beautiful figure, perfectly proportioned, gracefully posed and draped in a suitable setting is a fine thing. To be able to do the same with a number of figures grouped in a well balanced composition is a glorious achievement indeed, but to be able to do this latter and then carry the design through to its ultimate end places the artist in the very front rank of his profession. It has been said, and I think truly, that stained glass is either a trade or an art, according to whether the various portions of the craft are divided up amongst a number of operatives or whether it is carried through by one brain and pair of hands.”
(2) British Society of Master Glass Painters
(3) Tracery Tales – Exploring History, Architecture and Culture – One Adventure At A Time
The image is a scan from The Art and Craft of Stained Glass
Weekend 492.1
I’m waiting for the café next door to open…need coffee.
Yesterday I went to Mass at Our Lady of Fatima in Harlow. The church was featured in 100 Churches 100 Years published / commissioned by the Twentieth Century Society. The apron of the church is a perfect square and surrounded by “great expanses” of stained glass by Benedictine monk and artist Charles Norris (OSB).
“Its [the church] plan is a clear and straightforward expression of liturgical reform principles that sought to put the Mass center-stage, enveloped by the congregation.”
The Miracle of the Sun, also known as the Miracle of Fátima, occurred in 1917 . On my way back to the train station I stopped at the 1914-1918 War Memorial. It seemed appropriate since Our Lady promised that God would grant peace to the entire world if Her requests for prayer, reparation and consecration were heard and obeyed†.
I took photos and will post them on Flickr.
Weekend 488.2
Went to Mass at St. George’s Cathedral in Southwark. It was the first Roman Catholic Cathedral in London since the Reformation. It was also severely damaged in WWII by an incendiary bomb and visited by his Holiness Pope John Paul II in 1982.
The outside of the cathedral is very modest whilst the interior is similar to my own adopted parish of St. Margaret’s of Scotland in terms of its lack of ostentation. It’s accessible and cozy and the latter is not a word typically associated with cathedrals. There is some stained glass but it must be relatively new since the one dedicated to the Order of the Holy Sepulchre is from 1996. The glass is etched with the following:
“Pray for the Deceased Members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem 7th December 1996.”
I also learned more about the persecution and martyrdom of Catholics in the UK (Weekend 482.3). One of the few features in the cathedral to survive damage during the blitz was a memorial to Provost Thomas Doyle. The plaque next to the memorial reads:
“Two and a half centuries of penal laws against Catholics followed the Reformation of Henry VIII. By the 18th century some attitudes towards Catholics had changed but there was still a great deal of hostility.
In 1778 the first Catholic Relief Act allowed priests to minister openly and Catholics to buy or inherit property. This was not popular with everyone and in 1780 Lord George Gordon gathered about 50,000 protesters in St George’s Fields. They were to march to Westminster to present a petition seeking the repeal of the Act. What was initially a peaceful protest turned into a violent rampage, later known as the Gordon Riots. The cathedral stands on land which was once part of the same fields where Gordon gathered his followers.”
Lord George Gordon was an interesting fella and the riots were the subject of the Charles Dickens novel Barnaby Rudge. This quote from History Today about the Gordon Riots is interesting (the ghost of Santayana):
“The Gordon Riots, however, which showed how easily a big political gathering could erupt out of control into terrifying mass violence, sent a chill down the collective spine of the English propertied and ruling classes that lasted for years and helped to inspire repressive legislation and harden resistance to reform.”
Related
In Our Time: S21/33 The Gordon Riots (May 2, 2019)
Unrelated Weekend Historical Note
Visited St. Peter in Petersham and the graveyard is the burial place of Captain George Vancouver.