Our eight restored historic stained glass windows

Our historic stained glass windows were made in 1893 by the Franz Mayer Company of Munich Germany. These windows were commissioned in 1893 by our neighbors the Holy Family Sisters for the chapel of their original convent in San Francisco. When their San Francisco convent was sold in the late 1970’s the windows were purchased for the parish, restored, and placed in storage.  

The four windows in our sanctuary, from left to right, are Jesus the Good Shepard, Jesus blessing the Children, The Agony in the Garden, and Jesus in the home of Martha and Mary.

The windows in the Mission Blvd entry vestibule depict The Holy Family and St Anthony of Padua with the infant Jesus. The windows in the parking lot entry vestibule depict St Margaret Mary with the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Saints Agatha, Lucy, and Agnes.

The Franz Mayer Company has made stained glass church windows for over 170 years, beginning with royal commissions for the Cologne and Regensburg cathedrals in Bavaria. In 1892 Pope Leo 13th named the Mayer company a “Pontifical Institute of Christian Art“ and stained glass artists for the Holy See.

Mayer’s windows are featured in seventy-six Catholic cathedrals, twenty-six of them in the United States. In 1905 Mayer made the “Holy Spirit Window” above the Bernini Altar, the only leaded stained glass window in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Mayer’s windows are known for their rich detail and opulence and for their ability to engage viewers emotionally and spiritually. We are very fortunate to have these historic windows.

Our New Stained Glass Windows

The exterior windows on each side of our worship space were enlarged in the 2023 church renovation to hold twelve new stained glass windows commissioned by the parish. These windows were made by the Conrad Pickel Studio. Its founder, Conrad Pickel, learned the art of stained glass at the Mayer company in Munich, and opened his Florida studio in 1947. Pickel Studio windows continue the quality of the windows made by the Franz Mayer company.

Our new windows were made with mouth-blown antique glass, the same technique used for over a thousand years to produce colored glass for church windows. This process produces glass with a unique sparkle and texture. Features and details are hand painted onto the glass using special metallic oxide paints, and paint is fused to the glass in a kiln reaching temperatures of 1350 degrees, making it permanent.  Click Here to learn more about the creation of our new stained glass windows.

Pickel Studio’s windows are in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C and many other locations around the country, including the world’s largest stained glass window (according to the Guinness Book of World Records) at the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Resurrection Mausoleum.

Our new windows depict saints from many eras and communities.  They are, from front to back on the Mission Blvd side of the church:

St Mary Magdalene , the first disciple to encounter the resurrected Christ, often called the first evangelist

 

 

St Clare of Assisi (1194-1253), who warded off soldiers at the gates of her convent with the Blessed Sacrament (1194-1253)

 

 

St Kateri Tekawitha (1656-1680), the first Native American saint

 

 

St Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)

 

 

St Gianna Beretta Molla (1922-1962), an Italian pediatrician who sacrificed herself to give birth rather than abort her unborn child

 

 

Chinese Martyrs (19th – 20th Century)

 

 

From front to back on the parking lot side of the church:

Old Testament Joseph (Genesis 37-50) – The first Joseph in the Bible was one of Jacob’s 12 sons. His father loved him more than the others and gave him a colored cloak. His jealous brothers sold him into slavery and incarceration in Egypt. After correctly interpreting the dreams of Pharaoh, he rises to second-in-command in Egypt and saves Egypt (and his brothers) during a famine. Joseph is a vivid representation of the great truth that ‘all things work together for good to [those] who loved God.’ (See Rom. 8:28.). Joseph always did the right thing; but more importantly, he did it for the right reason.

 

St Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) founded the Franciscan Order. Franciscans founded Mission San Jose in 1797

 

 

St Dominic (1170-1221) founded the Dominican Order and is the Patron of our neighbors, the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose

 

 

St Lorenzo Ruiz (1594-1637), martyr and the first Filipino saint

 

 

Venerable Augustus Tolton (1854-1897), the first black American born Catholic priest. Click Here to learn more.

 

 

Vietnamese Martyrs (1745-1862) – Our altar contains relics of four of these Vietnamese saints