Mary’s Life in Stained Glass (2)

Glen McCullough

The Birth of Jesus

Having been refused entry in the town of Bethlehem, Joseph must have been desperate - what to do with his betrothed Mary in labour. Hence the stable implied in Luke’s account of the birth.

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I would expect in a window depicting the scene to see a newborn wrapped in swaddling clothes, an exhausted Mary and a worried Joseph.

Of the many portrayals I have seen, the most striking was in the foyer of First Presbyterian Church, Invercargill (marked [1]). It was designed by an Englishman named Brunton, who was well known for his strong faces, and made at Miller Studios in Dunedin. The artistic licence has disposed of the swaddling clothes, however, and I can hardly imagine Jesus as a blonde mature baby.

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Probably the most realistic setting is in Sacred Heart Church, Omagh, Northern Ireland [2]. The background scene is as primitive as I would expect, Joseph has turned white overnight, Mary looks proudly on. However, the baby Jesus, bigger than a newborn, is hardly lying in a bed of hay.

The most faithful I have seen to the scripture passage in Luke, and to the times, is in the Lady Chapel of St Paul’s Cathedral, Wellington [3]. Joseph holds an oil lamp, Jesus  is wrapped and the right size for a newborn babe, and Mary seems to be dressed simply, having just been through labour. The angels above are a reflection of a later verse (2:11) in Luke’s account.

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Definitely the most romantic depiction is in St Alban’s, Pleneuf Val-Andre, France [4]. It is the only one I have seen that shows Mary reclining, tired from her labour.

The Nativity window [5] behind the altar in St Pius X, Tokoroa, seems to take a very down-to-earth approach to the scene and, to my eye, portrays Mary and the baby Jesus from a Māori perspective.

In Luke’s account, ‘Suddenly many other angels came down from heaven and joined in praising God’ (Luke 2:13). Nowhere is this better expressed than in the large window gracing the foyer of the Methodist church in Remuera, Auckland [6]. Designed by Beverley Shore Bennett of Waikanae, who also designed [3] above, it shows an ethereal group of angels on each side of Mary and child, with Mary so obviously also adoring the Son of God to whom she has just given birth. I have no idea what happened to Joseph!

The next step in Luke’s narrative is the appearance of the shepherds who had been told of the joyous event by angels.

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By far the oldest and most traditional portrayal I have seen was in Wells Cathedral, England [7]. But for the sheer beauty of the scene, and of Mary in particular, I find it hard to go past the ones in St Mary of the Angels, Wellington [8], and Sacred Heart, Mosman, Sydney [9].

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“But Mary kept thinking about all this and wondering what it meant” (Luke 2:18).

To be continued