Photo – Peter Swanson

The Martyrdom of Saint Alban

1964 – The Little Sanctuary,               Saint Albans School, Washington, DC

This last window in the series of windows is right in keeping, stylistically, with the first four. It has a similar glass structure, with heavy lead lines again forming the shape of a cross and the large, carefully selected pieces of glass.  Rowan’s “orcs” are doing the dirty work here, and Rowan and Irene capture the execution in progress.  The glass in the red background is stunning, and the blue flames carry our eyes heavenwards with Saint Alban’s spirit.  

Iconography

The window depicts the beheading of Saint Alban, an event that is wrapped in story and myth. In Great Britain, Alban is honored as the first-recorded British Christian martyr. In Rowan and Irene’s window, at the moment of his death, Alban’s spirit rises up in a great blue flame and spreads over the land.  The school brochure tells us that this window also has ties to an event of American national significance, “This window was designed immediately after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The class composed an inscription which says, The Class of 1964, Remembering the Martyrdom of St. Alban and the death of President Kennedy.”

Year Completed

1964

Artists

Rowan LeCompte

Irene Matz LeCompte

Fabricator

Melville Greenland

Location In Building

North Wall