St. Stephen Catholic Church
El Paso, TX
Architect:
Alvidrez Architecture, Inc.
Liturgical Design Consultant:
Kenneth J. Griesemer & Associates
Use the links below for complete project information:
Overview | Tower Windows | Nave Windows
ALTAR CROSS WINDOW
Interior window wall measuring
11’ - 0” wide by 22’ - 0” high.
German, French and Polish mouthblown glass, domestic rolled glasses, dichroic glass, lead, and solder. Tempered protective glazing in lower lites.
The Altar Cross Window is the culmination of the sequence of stained glass that makes up the Windows for St. Stephen. Throughout the day and night its white glass Cross visually superimposes with the suspended, life-size Italian Corpus to create the Sanctuary’s very multidimensional Crucifix. This unusual Crucifix calls attention to the main focus of worship, the Altar.
This window also separates Altar and Nave from Tabernacle and Blessed Sacrament Chapel. Its frame is recessed three feet behind the Altar’s limestone wall, allowing light as well as celebrants to easily move back and forth. The eleven foot wide Altar Cross Window is four feet wider than the opening in the stone wall, thereby preventing its edges from being visible from the pews. Because of the parallax caused by the separation between the Glass Cross and suspended Corpus, the horizontal arms of the cross were widened so that they hover behind the Corpus whether viewed from the Altar or from the main entrance 140 feet away.
“White” glasses ranging from filmy French mouthblown opals to denser hand-rolled domestic glasses define and emphasize the Cross. Natural light streams from two exterior Chapel windows centered behind the Glass Cross together with indirect light from the large exterior window that is the Chapel’s eastern side. In daylight or when backlit, the “white” glasses take on an amber cast that resonates with stone, wood and other interior finishes while symbolically recalling the original wooden cross. In contrast with the transparent clear and pale tints surrounding the Glass Cross, the white glasses also grab light from Sanctuary and its recessed skylights. Their reflective and transmissive properties allow the white glasses to remain animated throughout day and night, in all lighting conditions. The pale colors and richly textured clear glasses in the background become paler and less textured as the stained glass sweeps upward. Sparkles of mirror-like and color-shifting dichroic glass radiate from the Glass Cross. Shape and line abstractly imply Dove, Tree, Angel, Stone, Wings and the radiating Love and Light of God’s presence.
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