My Opinion on Stained Glass Windows

by Lilla Radics

The Whispers of Church Stained Glass

If you have ever stepped foot into a catholic church, an intricately crafted stained glass window may have caught your eye. It most probably featured a praying or serene saint, most of these kinds of windows often weaving entire stories revolving around religious faith and devotion. My lovely sister happened to be in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, the other day, and sent me, as a side note, a picture of a stunning windowpane. It stretches very far skyward, making one have to look up, reminiscent, almost, of looking up to God; a plea for mercy. 

Figure 1: Taken by Piroska Radics in the St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague

Figure 2: Sainte-Chapelle, Paris 

Figure 3: Sainte-Chapelle, Paris

The creation process itself is long and arduous:

1. First, the forming of the glass by melting silica sand, limestone and soda ash.

2. Next, one of the most important parts: the coloration. This is done by mixing metallic oxides into the already molten glass. There are certain compounds that develop certain colours - cobalt gives blue, copper produces green (like rained-on old statues - also made of copper), and gold creates a striking ruby red. 

3. After colouring, the glass needs to be blown into the desired shape of the stained glass window.

4. This process is followed by letting the not yet solid glass to cool, and cutting it into sufficiently sized pieces, requiring a lot of careful planning and the ability to understand the overarching context of where that one piece will end up. 

5. The pieces are then assembled using copper foil or lead strips (the black part separating the panes from each other). Precision is key in this step - like just a few puzzle pieces out of place, the whole artwork could potentially even be ruined. It is also important to be gentle with such a delicate material as glass.

6. The meticulously cut glass pieces are then ready to be soldered to ensure they don’t crumble onto one another, and eventually to be framed by either wood or metal for sufficient support.

Phew! In medieval times, such well-crafted and detailed artworks could take years to make, even if there were multiple competent and skilled craftsmen working on them at once. In my mind, the hard labor behind these masterpieces makes them even more deserving of awe!

Whenever I used to feel overwhelmed back home, I would take a visit to the church a street down from my house. I wouldn’t really do anything, I would just sit, but the silent gaze of the eyes from the windows weighing on my shoulders, half-there, would somehow calm me. I am not religious by any means , but churches are my colourful galleries of light. The raw, sacred spirit of an empty church pew, shone upon by an omnipresent light, a miracle of life itself, reminds me of my humanity. If I was to be laid to rest at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and there was a zombie apocalypse, I would simply stay dead. I’d be enjoying myself so much.

In my opinion, these carefully crafted, elegant and breathtaking stained glass windows are not paid enough attention to. In truth, churches are not even close to being the only place where stained glass windows are present. In our very school, EIM (Montgomery International School), there’s a charming little one right above the entrance door. They really are all around us - maybe in the metro, maybe just next door. Just listen for the soft whispers of the orchestras of colour, all with a story itching to be told.