Saint Elizabeth Parish

Chester Springs, PA

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The Stained Glass Windows of Saint Elizabeth Church

- A highlight of our 25th Anniversary celebration in 2025 is the addition of new stained-glass windows to our beautiful church. Shortly before his retirement from Saint Elizabeth Parish, Father Mullin shared with the parish councils the exciting news that our beautiful church would be receiving additional stained-glass windows.
  
  Specifically, the new windows include two returns which complete the stained-glass design in the sanctuary area. Also, the main body of the church includes the addition of four windows depicting American Saints (John Neumann, Katharine Drexel, Elizabeth Ann Seton, and Kateri Tekakwitha) along the Route 100 side of the church. These new additions were intended at the time of the church building’s original design.
  The windows have been designed by Joseph Beyer Studio of Philadelphia, the firm which has designed and installed most of the existing stained-glass in the church. With gratitude to the generous parishioners who have donated the funding for this project, let’s take a closer look at how the six dormer windows image God’s work of creation:
- The Creation of Light (Gen. 1:3-5)
  
  Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw how good the light was. God then separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.”
  In this window, notice how the “primordial darkness” suggested by the geometric colors at the top of the window gives way to an outpouring of light into a rainbow of colors, all under the watchful eye of God the Father/Creator. In John’s Gospel we hear Jesus proclaim: “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
- Creation of the Sky, the Earth and the Sea by Separating the Waters (Gen. 1:6-10)
  
  Then God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate one body of water from the other.” And so it happened: God made the dome, and it separated the water above the dome from the water below it. God called the dome “the sky.” …
  Then God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land may appear.” And so it happened: the water under the sky was gathered into its basin, and dry land appeared. God called the dry land “the earth” and the basin of water God called “the sea.” God saw how good it was.
  The circular movement of wavey colors in this window reflects the swirling of the waters, both above the sky (the dome) and around the oceans of the world. Do you sense a “watery feel” in this window? With an exuberant spirit, the Psalmist proclaims: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:2). God’s power over water is also reflected in the Gospel accounts of Jesus calming the storm at sea (see Mark 4:35-41).
- The Creation of the Sun, the Moon and the Stars (Gen. 1:14-19)
  
  Then God said, “Let here be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night. Let them mark the fixed times, the days and the years, and serve as luminaries in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth.” And so it happened: God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night; and God made the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkens. God saw how good it was.
  In this window, one can almost imagine traveling in a spaceship looking out at an endless blue sky filled with countless stars, within which the powerfully bright sun shines forth in such bold colors, its light reflected in the paler colors of the moon – a celestial portrait in all its created splendor. In the words of the Psalmist, we proclaim: “You made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows the hour of its setting …. How manifold are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you have wrought them all - the earth is full of your creatures” (Psalm 104:19, 23).
- The Creation of Vegetative Life (Gen. 1:11-12)
  
  Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on the earth that bears fruit with its seeds in it.” And so it happened: the earth brought forth every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it. God saw how good it was.
  The design of this window depicts an organic plant bursting with a mixture of colors reflecting the four seasons of the year. A few verses later in the creation account, God gives every green plant for food to all the animals and God gives every seed-bearing plant and tree as food for humankind (Gen 1:29-30).
  One might also see anticipated here God’s providing the People of Israel with manna in the desert (Exodus 16:1-15) and Jesus’ feeding the multitude before declaring: “I am the bread of life… I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever” (John 6:1-59, especially verses 48-52).
- The Creation of Animal Life (Gen. 1:20-25)
  
  Then God said, “Let the waters teem with an abundance of living creatures, and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky.” And so it happened: God created the great sea monsters all all kinds of swimming creatures with which the water teems, and all kinds of winged birds. God saw how good it was, and God blessed them, saying, “Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas; and let the birds multiply on the earth….”
  Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals of all kinds.” And so it happened: God made all kinds of wild animals, all kinds of cattle, and all kinds of creeping things of the earth. God saw how good it was.
  This window reflects a whirling dance of living creatures on land, in the skies, and in the seas. God has indeed filled the earth with an abundance of life in a marvelous variety of forms. And once again, God saw how good it was!
- The Creation of Man (Gen. 1:26-28, 31)
  
  The God said, “Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.”
  God created man in his image; in the divine image God created him; male and female God created them. God blessed them, saying, “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and all things that move on the earth.” … God looked at everything God had made, and God found it very good.
  In this window, the elongated image of Adam and Eve reaching out towards one another reflects the climax of God’s creation in the human person and the complementarity of man and woman made in the divine image. Their outstretched hands may also remind us of the powerful image of God and Adam reaching toward one another in Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” on the Sistine Chapel ceiling at the Vatican.
- In the end, may these six new stained-glass windows ever remind us of the splendor of God’s creation, of which we human persons are an integral part and for which we bear responsibility before God and on behalf of the future generations of our children and grandchildren. And may the windows deepen our realization that each one of us, like the physical world around us, is “fearfully, wonderfully made, for wonderful are all the works of God.” (Psalm 139:14).
  Fr. Thomas Mullin
  
  Now let us look at the four American saints who are featured in the new windows:
- Saint John Neumann
  
  Saint John Neumann learned pretty quickly what it meant to follow God's will with your whole heart and soul. He was certain that he was called to be a priest, but when the time came for ordination, his bishop fell ill and the ordination was cancelled. It was never rescheduled, because there was an over-abundance of priests in Europe. Knowing he was meant to be a priest, John traveled all the way from Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic) to New York City to be ordained. He was one of only 36 priests, serving 200,000 Catholics: his 'parish' stretched from Lake Ontario throughout Pennsylvania.
  
  In 1852, Bishop John Neumann was appointed the fourth bishop of Philadelphia. He became the founder of the first diocesan Catholic School system, going from only two schools to one hundred schools in the diocese. Bishop Neumann worked tirelessly to shepherd the people entrusted to his care. He died on January 5, 1860 at the age of 48.
  
  Well-known for his holiness and learning, spiritual writing and preaching, on October 13, 1963, John Neumann became the first American bishop to be beatified. Canonized in 1977, he is buried in Saint Peter the Apostle Church in Philadelphia.
- Saint Katharine Drexel
  
  When she asked Pope Leo XIII to send more missionaries to Wyoming, he asked her, "Why don't you become a missionary?" As a young, wealthy, educated girl from Philadelphia, this was hardly the expected lifestyle for young Katharine Drexel. But raised in a devout family with a deep sympathy for the poor, Katharine gave up everything to become a missionary to Native Americans and African Americans. She founded a religious congregation of women, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, and opened Catholic schools in thirteen states for African Americans, forty mission centers and twenty-three rural schools. She also established fifty missions for Native Americans in sixteen different states. She died at the age of ninety-six and was canonized in the year 2000.
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
  
  Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton was the charming "belle of the ball" as a young woman in New York City, linked to all the first families. At the age of 19, she fell in love and married the wealthy, handsome William Magee Seton. The two had a very happy marriage, raising five children. Ten years after they were married, William's business and health both failed, and Elizabeth was left a poor widow with five children to raise alone. Her love for the Eucharist led her to convert to Catholicism and founded the first order of religious women in America, the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph, a religious community based on the Rule of Saint Vincent De Paul. She was able to still raise her children, as well as live the life of a sister and found several schools. She became the co-founder of the first free Catholic School in America.
- Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
  
  Nicknames are generally silly, entertaining names given to people by affectionate relatives or friends. It's rare to hear an enviable one. But "Lily of the Mohawks?" Now, that's an elegant nickname. This is the nickname of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha. Orphaned at the age of four, she was raised by her uncle, the chief of the Mohawk village. When priests came to the village, Kateri was drawn by their teachings, and converted at the age of 19, heedless of the anger of her relatives. Because she refused to work on Sundays, she was denied meals that day. Finally, a missionary encouraged her to run away to Montreal, Canada, to practice her faith freely. She followed his advice, and lived a life of extreme prayer and penance, taking a vow of virginity. She was beatified in 1980 and canonized on October 21, 2012.