Viewed while facing the Altar

(Click on each image for a larger picture)

These stained glass windows honor six saints in our Roman Catholic history. Four of these saints – Remigius, Apollonia, John Neumann and Elizabeth Seton – have a relic under our main altar. These relics were placed under the tile of the altar by Bishop James Griffin when our church was dedicated in November, 1989. The other two saints are St. Joan of Arc, our patron saint, and St. Peter the Apostle, because our parish was formed by splitting off from St. Peter Parish, our neighbor to the south.

Below are short biographies of the saints we are honoring with our new windows (from left to right):

Remigius was named Archbishop of Rheims, the city where centuries later Joan of Arc was to see Charles VII crowned as King of France. He was known for his charity and special care of the downtrodden. In 496, he baptized Clovis, King of the Franks, thus bringing about the conversion of the country to the Catholic faith. St. Remigius was the Patron of the First Catholic Church in the city of Columbus.

Apollonia, an aged virgin, was the most well known of the martyrs who died at Alexandria, in Egypt, in 249. She was beaten, then led outside the city and told she must deny Christ or be burned alive. She was silent for a while, then, inspired, she leapt into the flames. Her feast is celebrated February 9th.

Peter was called Simon, and lived and worked as a fisherman. His brother, Andrew, introduced him to Jesus who gave him the name Cephas, the Aramic equivalent of the Greek Peter (the Rock). Peter was with Jesus during many of his miracles, but denied him in the courtyard of Pontius Pilate’s palace, where Christ was held prisoner. A very early tradition says he went to Rome after escaping imprisonment by Herod Agrippa, where he was Rome’s first bishop and was crucified at the foot of Vatican Hill during the reign of Nero.

St. Joan of Arc was born in 1412 in a small village in France. When she was 13 years old, Joan began to hear, in prayer, voices telling her that she was to save France. Over several years the voices continued, and eventually by announcing the outcome of distant battles before word arrived by messenger, she was able to convince authorities of her divine calling. She led great battles at Orleans and Patay. In 1430, she was captured during battle and imprisoned by the British. She was condemned as a relapsed heretic and was burned at the stake. Under Pope Benedict XV, Joan was canonized a saint in ceremonies held in 1920.

John Nepomucene Neumann attended seminary in Bohemia and then became a missionary in America. He was ordained a priest and worked in Buffalo before joining the Redemptorist Order in 1840 and became an American citizen in 1852. He is described as practical, zealous, humble and filled with deep devotion. He was noted for his aggressive sponsoring of Catholic schools.

Elizabeth Ann Seton was born in New York City, married and was blessed with five children. She joined the Catholic Church in 1805, two years after the death of her husband. Four years later she established the Sisters of Charity and a school at Emmitsburg, Maryland. She and her sisters performed works of mercy throughout the area, giving courageous example of renunciation and mortification. She was a skillful leader and trainer of her community. She died of tuberculosis in 1821.

We gratefully thank the following people/organizations who donated the money for the windows.

Other donors:

All these other donations helped to pay for the prepping of the church windows (resealing) to have the stained glass windows put over them.