About Stained Glass

St. Simon and St. Jude Honored in Stained Glass Saints Simon and Jude are the eleventh and twelfth disciples of Jesus, who continued after the crucifixion to do His work, as missionaries traveling together to bring the gospel to Mesopotamia and Persia, and were eventually martyred there.  Saint Simon, or Simon the Zealot and St. […]

St. Wolfgang is one of the three great German saints of the tenth century (the other two being St. Ulrich and St. Conrad). He was born in 934 AD in Swabia, Germany. He was educated under the Benedictines and later became an ordained Benedictine teacher. In 971 he took a group of monks to go […]

St. Anne lived in the eighth century AD and is also known as Euphemianus. She was born to a prominent family in Constantinople and was forced into marriage. When her husband died, Anne adopted a disguise as a male, and that is when she chose the male name “Euphemianus” for herself. As such she entered […]

St. Anne lived in the eighth century AD and is also known as Euphemianus. She was born to a prominent family in Constantinople and was forced into marriage. When her husband died, Anne adopted a disguise as a male, and that is when she chose the male name “Euphemianus” for herself. As such she entered […]

The Italian Charles Borromeo was the cardinal archbishop of Milan from 1546 until his death at the age of forty-six in 1584. He was among the great reformers of the sixteenth century and was a leading figure during the counter-reformation. He was responsible for significant accomplishments in the Catholic Church, such as the founding of […]

In the German city of Cologne there is a Church of St. Ursula with an inscription from the fourth or fifth century which states that the basilica had been restored on the site where a group of holy virgins had been martyred. This has been the source of many legends concerning St. Ursula. According to […]

Born in Poland in 1920, Karol Jozef Wojtyla later became known as Pope St. John Paul II, or St. John Paul the Great. He was Pope of the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005 and was the second longest-serving pope in modern history. He was also the first non-Italian Pope since 1523. He traveled widely […]

  The Impact of Stained Glass in American Culture  From its early beginnings as colored beads and glass bottles, to its development as “the poor man’s Bible,” to its modern day use in upscale clubs, homes and retail outlets, stained glass has evolved across the world, but nowhere more than in America.  This fascinating, evocative […]

St. Angela Merici was an Italian religious leader and saint born in 1474. Her parents died when she was fifteen, leaving her and an older sister as orphans. Angela was very disturbed when her sister died suddenly without receiving the Last Sacraments and she prayed fervently for her sister’s soul. In response she received a […]

Stained Glass Lights Up The Worship Experience It’s easy to think of church stained glass as simply a colorful part of traditional religious decor. Stories of the Bible, depictions of saints and angels, parables, proverbs and psalms are reflected across sanctuaries, synagogues and prayer chapels in shades of color and light. Such a longstanding religious […]