Our story in stained-glass: from the Middle Ages to your congregation

By John Hamer, Canada East Historian

Stained-glass windows have deep roots in Christian history. They were popularized and made important by Abbot Suger of St. Denis in the 12th-century Kingdom of France. Suger’s abbey housed the royal crypts where most of the kings and queens of France have been buried. He wanted to renovate and rebuild his abbey church on a grand scale in a new style, using the latest engineering technology. He ended up building what we now think of as the first “Gothic cathedral.”

The most important component of the new church were its windows — much larger and letting in far more light than earlier Roman and Romanesque structures. These were decorated with stained-glass images of the saints and vignettes of Bible stories. But these were not meant simply to be pretty or to tell stories to the illiterate. The windows had a theological purpose. Drawing upon the Gospel of John’s description of the divine Christ — “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind” — Suger allegorized light as the source of divine revelation. In his conception of stained glass, the natural light of the sun was lux, which was then mediated through the gem-light prism of the windows, becoming lumen or metaphysical light. Finally, that lumen entered the eyes of individuals as “illumination” — a spiritual light that elevated the mind and fed the soul.

Suger developed his ideas from The Celestial Hierarchy, an important theological text he believed had been written by Dionysius the Areopagite. Dionysius was an Athenian leader in the Book of Acts who converted because of Paul’s preaching (Acts 17:34). Tradition in Suger’s day held that Dionysius became a Christian missionary in Gaul, ultimately serving as the first bishop of Paris, winning renown as “the apostle of France.” After Dionysius’ martyrdom, he was buried in Suger’s abbey, which was named in his honour — “Denis” being French for Dionysius. (Modern historians have concluded that Denis of Paris, the author of The Celestial Hierarchy, and the character from the Book of Acts were actually three different individuals.)

Stained glass has continued to provide illumination within our own Community of Christ tradition in churches across Canada. Magnificent stained-glass windows from the historic Maitland Street church in London were preserved and are now housed in the Woodfield church. Stained-glass windows from the historic Soho Street church in Toronto are preserved in the heritage rooms of Toronto Centre Place, the Reaching Out Centre in Mississauga, as well as the church history museum in the Temple in Independence.

Other beautiful examples of stained glass include renditions of the church seal in buildings as far afield as Edmonton, Calgary, and Proton.

Does your church facility include stained glass? Do you know its history? Please share photos and the story with us: [email protected]