The Mayer Munich Windows

a series on the windows first appeared in the parish bulletin the weekends of June 14, 21, 28, and July 5, 2020.

The 19^th Century saw a resurgence of liturgical and architectural arts in Bavaria from the impetus and inspiration of King Ludwig I.  This initiative encouraged Joseph Mayer to open a fine arts studio in 1847 in Munich.  It centered around the fine arts of architecture, sculpture and painting.  In 1860, he added a stained-glass department and in 1890, Franz, the founder’s son, opened an office in New York City.  In 1892, Pope Leo XIII, named the studio a “Pontifical Institute of Christian Art.”  This recognition with astute business insight to establish an office in the States would help to make the Mayer Munich Studio once of the most popular for Catholic cathedrals and churches until the 1920s. 

The Mayer Munich Studio perfected the art of Bavarian glass painting by using a medieval-style architectural frame of white design that enable large amounts of light to enter a church while the center section became a transparent painting on glass.  This allowed the center area to be a canvas for Catholic religious sentiment and Renaissance idealism and sweetness with “strong colors, three-dimensional modeling of forms, and an illusionistic recession in space.”  This architectural frame and the fictive elements to dramatize the event helped to form a unified presentation in the window.  Unlike today with copyright laws and a standard of originality, most of their windows took their inspiration from famous or popular art.  These images were known by reproductions in engravings, as illustrations in religious books, and single sheet images mass produced for household devotions.  They were inspired and copied the religious depictions of Heinrich Hofmann, Carl Muller, Bartholome Estaban Murillo and Bernard Plockhorst.  

In October of 1909, Fr. McGrath announced his intent to enter into a contract with the Mayer Munich Studio for a series on the Life of Our Lady to be depicted in the fourteen windows that line the nave of Saint Mary’s Church.  These would replace the original windows which were done in a geometric pattern.  Examples of these original windows can still be seen in the church on the western wall that faces Winter Street above the choir loft.  An examination of these windows reveals that the original windows had a casing that ran down the middle of the current windows dividing them into two equal Gothic arches that alongside each other with a roundel above formed a larger Gothic arch. This casing was removed in order to provide a larger and uninterrupted canvas for the event to be depicted by the studio.  On October 10, 1909, Fr. McGrath announced the names of the donors for the windows; there were more donors than windows at the time.  He detailed that the windows would cost $490 apiece including the customs surcharge for importing and would be installed in 1910 since they would be manufactured in Bavaria where there was a high standard of excellence and be shipped to be installed in the parish.  With his typical humility, he listed the memorial for the patronal window of the Assumption with the request “Pray for the Souls of Edward and Mary McGrath.”  This request is for parents, his mother having been named for Our Lady, but no inclusion of his own name as the donor.

With the exception of the construction of the bell tower and its impressive signature on the downtown landscape of Milford, nothing else has so dramatically changed Saint Mary’s Church that the choice by Fr. David McGrath to remove the center post of the nave windows and install a series depicting the Life of Our Lady.  Drawing from Catholic piety and tradition in the Gospels as well as other Christian writings, these windows tell the biography of Our Lady in a way that is inspiring and informative.  There are fourteen windows that begin in the southeast corner, to the furthest right as you enter through the main door.  

First, is an image of Our Lady with her parents, Saints Anne and Joachim, in their home in Jerusalem.  Tradition is that Saint Joachim was of the priestly class, that Our Lady was conceived at a later stage in Joachim’s life.  There is also a tradition that Anne married twice more and each daughter she named Miriam, one became the wife of Cleopas and another the mother of Salome; these half-sisters are recorded in the gospels as accompanying Our Lady to Calvary and to the empty tomb on Easter morning. 

Next is the Presentation of Our Lady in the Temple.  The depiction here is an event told in the Protoevangelium of Saint James, a gospel account that was not considered to be inspired for inclusion in the canon of Sacred Scripture, but many details have come down to us in Catholic piety, among them that the parents of Our Lady were named Joachim and Anne and that at an early age, she was brought by them to the Temple where upon she ascended the stairs of her own ability and lived there as a consecrated virgin serving and praying in the Temple every day. 

The third window is of the Annunciation.  This depicts the famous story of the Angel Gabriel who sent by God to Our Lady at her home in Nazareth to ask her to submit to God’s will that the Redeemer would take flesh within her womb.  Our Lady holds a lily, symbolic that her virginity is no lost as the Words take flesh within her womb. 

The middle window on the right of the Marriage between Our Lady and Saint Joseph.  Our Lady was betrothed to Joseph at the visit of the Angel Gabriel; now obedient to the instructions given to him by an angel in a dream, he takes Our Lady as his wife.  Joseph holds a staff with a lily.  In The Golden Legend, that when the High Priest chose a suitor for Our Lady, each was asked to bring a rod.  He had been told in a vision that the one that blossomed miraculously was the choice for Miriam.  Supposedly being advanced in age, Joseph did not present a staff.  When none bloomed, each was questioned and Joseph’s lack was discovered.  When he placed his staff on the altar it bloomed instantaneously, whereupon they were betrothed and subsequently married.

Fifth in line is the Visitation, the meeting between Our Lady and her cousin, Elizabeth.  The Golden Legend tells us that Saint Anne had a sister, Ismeria, who had two children, Elizabeth and Eliud.  This is how as their mothers were sisters, Our Lady and Elizabeth were first cousins and thus John the Baptist is a cousin to our Lord.  Elizabeth is shown greeting Our Lady with Saint Joseph behind him as Zechariah stands in the doorway of the house.

The next window is the Nativity.  This depicts the newborn Christ Child lying in the manger surrounded by his mother and father with the shepherds in adoration.  This account from Luke’s gospel is a traditional setting and could have been inspired by any number of familiar or famous renderings from the medieval period.  A reference to Matthew’s account and the journey of the Magi is hinted at as the shepherd on the right looks up and to the left drawing the viewer’s attention to a brilliant star hanging in the sky.

 

The last window on the south side or right side of the church as you enter from the main doorway is the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple.  This account in Luke’s gospel is an account of the fulfillment of Jewish Law that every firstborn son is to be brought to the Temple to be presented to the Lord.  In the place of human sacrifice, the child is ransomed by an offering.  Luke’s account that the parents offered two pigeons is an indication of their limited financial means.  This offering is remembered by the two doves depicted in the quatrefoil at the point of the arch.  Luke’s account also references the prophetess Anna who is depicted arriving at the Temple and can be seen over Joseph’s right shoulder.