Mary’s Life in Stained Glass (3)

Glen McCullough

The Visit of the Magi

1

While Mary and Joseph were still in Bethlehem, the three men variously described as ‘wise, ‘kings’ or ‘the Magi’ found their way under a star to the stable and knelt before the baby Jesus and worshipped Him. They brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

The whole event is described only in Matthew’s Gospel, and the Church commemorates the event on January 6^th as the Epiphany, a word the dictionary defines as the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi, or a moment of sudden and great revelation or realisation.

2

I have no doubt it was a moment of sudden and great revelation to Mary. I have seen many representations of the scene. Probably the most orthodox was the one I saw in St Andrew’s Church, Vancouver, Canada (marked [1]). The star is there. The visitors hold their gifts, and one of them is darker, following the tradition of the Church. Unusually, the baby Jesus looks small enough to be newly born. Mary is in her traditional blue. The only break with tradition is the haloes the men have been given - usually they are depicted without them.

3

Completely non-traditional are the two windows on this page.

No [2] is in the chapel of the Franciscan Friary in Killarney, Ireland. Although rather dark, it shows Mary as a doll-like figure with Joseph’s hand on her shoulder, and Jesus as a beautifully dressed blonde child, certainly not a newborn, as He still would have been.

No [3] is in the church at the foot of the hill in Assisi, built as a memorial at the place where St Francis went on retreat. The window is distinctly modern and shows a mature Mary with Jesus as an older child.

A very large window in St David’s Cathedral, Hobart, Tasmania is also very modern. The central part only is shown [4], but the figure of Mary is dressed like a religious sister, and Jesus is a tiny babe. Historically the window is not correct, as the shepherds on the right-hand side were long gone. The directional lines come from a star directly above Mary. The overall effect is to give a mystical appearance to the window that is very effective.

4

At the opposite end of the spectrum is the stark window in St George’s in the Pines, Banff, Alberta, Canada [5]. The figures seem so formally arranged, Mary looks like an ice maiden and Jesus looks like a ventriloquist’s dummy. Despite that, it is a very colourful and eye-catching window.

5

6

7

Another depiction is in Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Randwick, Sydney [6]. Apart from being very colourful, it struck me because Mary is shown as a rather plump matronly figure, as you can see clearly from the inset. Also notable is that the wise men are shown as kings. One of them is the traditional African, and another has taken his crown off before kneeling at baby Jesus’ feet.

The very colourful  window [7] in Cathedral St Gatien, Tours, France is unique, with four small ‘cartoons’ underneath showing the stages of the journey of the three men.

Another colourful window [8] in St Paul’s, Burwood, Sydney, has the words of Isaiah 60:3 ‘And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising’ underneath. That prophecy may have led to the belief that the men to whom Matthew referred could have been kings.

The last window [9] is in St Peter’s Cathedral, Regensburg, Germany. At the rear of the church, above one of the side aisles, the eyes are drawn to it like a magnet as you leave the church, simply because of the brilliance of the blue dress Mary is wearing. Preparing the photo for printing has dulled the blue somewhat, but I hope you can get some idea of its beauty. Hail, Mary!

To be continued