Meditation

Read Mark 8:34-38; Romans 1:16. 1 Peter4: 12 – 19, 2Tim. 2:11 - 13. How far are you willing to go in professing Christianity? Can you take suffering a little? A whole lot? How strong are your beliefs really? Give thanks for the lives of St. Agnes, St. Ursua and St. Joan. Read the story of Debora in Judges 4: 1 - 5:15. This is very much a woman’s window. Remember the women who have been important in your life and give thanks for them. If you are a woman, consider what job God might have for you because you are a woman - as was the case with Debora.

History

Dedicated April 19, 1959, the St. Agnes is a gift of Willard T. White in memory of his mother Agnes Schofield White, October 2, 1871 to January 25, 1931. Schoonover's description: "The window shows St Agnes (A.D. 304) holding in her left hand a dove, the symbol of purity, with a ring in its mouth. She consecrated her virginity to a heavenly spouse and in her right hand is a palm leaf, indicative of sainthood. The chain about her feet is symbolic of her torture and death. About her feet are two lambs (agni) which are her symbol. She was either beheaded or burned, probably the latter, since those in authority planned a slow death for martyrs. She was twelve years old at the time of her death, and was rumored to have been betrayed by a spurned suitor. Agnes means pure in Greek and lamb in Latin. On her feast day two lambs are blessed with their wool woven into a pallium (scarf). The pope uses a pallium to invest archbishops, as was done for the first Archbishop of Canterbury, Augustine, in 601 A.D. The predella has to do with Debora, a prophetess who judged Israel 1316 B.C. (Judges 4:1 - 5:15) Upper sections about the head of St. Agnes are the figures of St. Ursula, 451 A.D., and Joan of Arc, 1431 A.D., of France." (1 Peter 4:12 - 19)