HISTORY OF THE STAINED-GLASS WINDOWS
Our windows were originally in the Church of St. James,
1225 East Eager Street, Baltimore, Maryland. The parish lived a glorious
religious life from 1867 to 1987 under the pastoral guidance of the
Redemptorist Fathers and Brothers of the Baltimore Province. The windows
were the work of the Josef Mayer Studio in Munich, Germany. St. James
was a parish for German immigrants, and their faith was graphically
expressed in these treasures from their homeland.
Originally there were ten such windows in St. James,
eight feet by twenty-seven feet, depicting scenes from the life of
Christ and our Blessed Mother Mary. In 1987 the Redemptorists signed
a contract with HUD (Housing and Urban Development) to convert this
huge church (its choir loft was as big as our present church!) into
housing units. At this time in history for this area of the city,
housing was needed more than a monumental worship space.
The Redemptorists dismantled the ten windows and stored
them in the basement of the rectory of St. Mary's Church in Annapolis,
MD - until such a time as a suitable religious home could be found
for them. In the spring of 1989 in a casual conversation with his
classmate, Fr. Raymond Collins, our pastor, Fr. Douglas Fater, mentioned
that he wished there were something traditional that could be designed
into our church building. Fr. Collins told about windows in storage.
Two of the windows had already been re-designed and installed in the
Church of Our Lady of Fatima in Baltimore. Four others had been delivered
to a pastor in the Baltimore area who was building a new church. The
remaining four were given to us here at Holy Trinity in San Antonio.
Gibbons of Baltimore was the studio that refurbished our windows and
shipped them here for installation.
Our parish family will always be grateful to the Redemptorists
of the Baltimore Province for preserving these windows and giving
them to us. On November 9, 1990, the anniversary of the founding of
the Redemptorist Order, our parish will celebrate a special Mass of
Thanksgiving with the Redemptorists from this area of the country.
May we parishioners of Holy Trinity live the flaming faith and unquestionable
commitment of those early German settlers, who were inspired to bring
these sacred treasures to St. James in Baltimore in 1867!
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