Saint Louis Windows - Left
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Samuel Judge - Pane #1
Left Windows #1
Pane #1
Reading: "So he took his firstborn, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him as a burnt offering upon the wall. The wrath against Israel was so great that they gave up the siege and returned to their own land." II Kings: III:27
1) Samuel Judge (left window #1, bottom panel)
2) Daniel window (left window #2, pane #4)
3) Zacharias window (left window #4, pane #1)
4) Eli window (right window #1, pane #1)
In each case, OT prophets are shown dressed as high priests, wearing ephods and a distinctive headdress. Ephods were embroidered linen rectangles worn on the chest, to which a jeweled breastplate was attached. The Biblical references are Exodus 28:4-30, 29:5, 39:2-21; Leviticus 8:7-8.
The same passages specify that the high priest should wear a "mitre" (in the Douai-Rheims; the NRSV translated it as "turban") in Exodus 28:36-7, which specifies that a gold plate to be worn on the front of the turban); same in Exodus 39:29-30. Leviticus 8.9 also places such a plate on the front of the turban.
The mitres worn by the OT prophets in the windows are more like crowns, with protrusions off to the sides. As such, they follow in a western Christian artistic tradition that became fully established by the 15th century, a design something like a bishop's mitre worn sideways. The design might also have been prompted by some vague awareness of crowns worn by eastern Orthodox clergy. Rabbis are often shown, in both Italian and Northern Renaissance art, wearing a headdress divided down the middle, giving rise to exaggerated protrusions, as seen in the windows.
Samuel Judge
Left Windows #1
Samuel, Judge
Bright
These images have been brightened and corrected from the source image.
Interestingly, the theme of the window is established by the first pane, usually a prophet or judge from the Old Testament. Then, the panes are organized from the top down. In this gallery, I have reorganized the panes so that the thematic structure is more easily understood. The images of the entire windows are how they are seen in the chapel at St. Louis.
Daniel
Left Windows #2
Pane #2
Reading: "His blood be upon us and upon our children." Matthew XXVII:25
The entire USCCB reading helps with context:
"When Pilate saw that he was not succeeding at all, but that a riot was breaking out instead, he took water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. Look to it yourselves.”
And the whole people said in reply, “His blood be upon us and upon our children.”
Then he released Barabbas to them, but after he had Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified."
The Prophet Amos
Left Windows #3
Pane #1
Reading: "On that day—oracle of the Lord GOD—I will make the sun set at midday and in broad daylight cover the land with darkness." Amos VIII:9
This foreshadows Matthew 27:45 - "From noon onward darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon," the time that Jesus dies on the Cross.
The Prophet Amos is the first Hebrew prophet to have a biblical book named for him.
Amos
Left Windows #3
Pane #4
Reading: "Whosoever being struck shall look on it shall live." Numbers: XX!:8
The full reading in the USCCB is as follows (Numbers XXI:7-9):
"Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you. Pray to the LORD to take the serpents from us.”
So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses: "Make a seraph and mount it on a pole, and everyone who has been bitten will look at it and recover."
Accordingly Moses made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever the serpent bit someone, the person looked at the bronze serpent and recovered."
Moses appears in two windows, left window #3, panel #4, and right window #3, panel #1. In both cases, Moses is shown with rays of light protruding from his head. In the Douai-Rheims Version, Exodus 34:29: "And when Moses came down from the mount Sinai, he held the two tables of the testimony, and he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord." It seems that when St Jerome did his Vulgate translation, he read a Hebrew word as "horns," which may instead have been intended to indicate rays of light.
Amos
Left Windows #3
Pane #5
Reading: "He put forth his hand and took the sword to sacrifice his son." Genesis: XXII:10
If you look closely at the lower left, you will see the ram that is caught in the thicket that will be sacrificed instead of Isaac.
This is the entire reading from Genesis in the USCCS (Gen XX:10-13):
"Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.
But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham!” “Here I am,” he answered.
“Do not lay your hand on the boy,” said the angel. “Do not do the least thing to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you did not withhold from me your son, your only one.”
Abraham looked up and saw a single ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son.*
The Prophet Zacharias
Left Windows #4
Pane #1
Zacharias, Prophet
Reading: "And God made the two great lights–the greater light (the sun) to rule the day and the lesser light (the moon) to rule the night. He also made the stars." Zach 13:16
Also Genesis 1:16 "God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night, and the stars."
Church of the Transfiguration in Philadelphia
The original installation of the windows. The Amos window is on the left; the Zacharias window is on the right. Because of space constraints, Saint Louis did not acquire the large windows in the center. All of these windows were made by the world-famous F.X. Zettler Studio.
