Historical buildings very often only reveal their secrets over time and even then, only after patient questioning. St. Anne Church is no exception to the rule.
When the parish was preparing the brochure commemorating the 140th anniversary of the founding of St. Anne in 1873, one of the things we very much wished to do was to highlight the church’s remarkable stained glass windows. The challenge in that lay with the nine windows of the sanctuary vault and those figures which initially at least, were not readily identifiable. One of them, on the Gospel side, caused considerable questioning until a 1998 issue of the parish bulletin turned up identifying it as St. Agnes.
Recent closer examination of the sanctuary windows has revealed the figure’s true identity: Saint Gabriel the Archangel. Jean-Claude Grant, who has taken many photos of church interiors including many of St. Anne, recently photographed the windows using a more sophisticated camera which very clearly shows what up until now had not been easily visible from the sanctuary floor; the figure’s red wings! The wings, together with the diadem crowned with a cross are typical of the iconographic depictions of angels leaving no doubt about the figure’s identity. St. Gabriel the Archangel is shown standing opposite St. Michael the Archangel, bringing a nice balanced logic to the window series.
Thank you Jean-Claude!