"And now you know… the rest of the story."

One of my favorite subjects to research for stained glass has to be the Apocryphal Books of the Bible. A lot of the windows from the life of Mary come out of these apocryphal texts. From the Nativity of Mary, up to her marriage to Joseph and flight in to Egypt, most of her non-biblical life is covered. A few of these “hidden” books cover the early life of Christ. There are stories of a child Christ giving life to clay birds and raising his friend from the dead. Although the Espousal of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph is the only Apocryphal image in Corpus Christi, there are many others in the region. Some of the best windows depicting the life of Mary in Western New York are located in the Alumni Chapel at Niagara University.

            Now that the Espousal of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph is done, three of the main windows and four of the clearstory windows are completed. By the end of the weekend I hope to have the clearstory finished up so I can start on the vestibule windows.