ST. AUGUSTINE

This Catholic stained glass window is centered on St. Augustine of Hippo. St. Augustine is one of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity. Neo-Platonism heavily influenced Augustine. He framed the concepts of original sin and just war. When the Roman Empire in the West was starting to disintegrate, Augustine developed the concept of the Church as a spiritual City of God in a book called The City of God, as distinct from the material city of man. His thought profoundly influenced the medieval worldview. Augustine's City of God was closely identified with the church, and was the community, which worshipped God.

Augustine was born to a Catholic mother named St. Monica. He was educated in North Africa and resisted his mother's pleas to become Christian. Living as a pagan intellectual, he took a concubine and became a Manichean. Later he converted to the Catholic Church, became a bishop, and opposed heresies, such as the belief that people can have the ability to choose to be good to such a degree as to merit salvation without divine aid (Pelagianism). He is a saint and pre-eminent Doctor of the Church, and the patron of the Augustinian religious order.

At the top of the window is a dove surrounded by tongues of fire. The dove represents the Holy Spirit who inspired St Augustine to convert to Roman Catholicism. Below the central image are three ovals. The one on the left contains the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The one on the right contains the Holy Eucharist. The central oval contains one of the most famous quotes of his writings. On top of the outer frame are seven fire-like winged shapes that represent the seven spirits (angels) of God that surround his throne in the book of Revelation. The twenty light blue circles in the border around the window represent the twenty mysteries of the rosary, which is a contemplative prayer of the life of Jesus, Mary. The eighteen yellow, orange, red diamond like shapes in between the rosary beads represent the angels assigned to assist St Augustine in his many writings and works as a bishop.