Saint Alban Take To Martyrdom | The Windows of Rowan LeCompte

Photo – Peter Swanson

Saint Alban Taken To Martyrdom

1963 – The Little Sanctuary, Saint Albans School, Washington, DC

We are now four years into this series of five windows, and this one, done in 1963, manages to maintain the constant mood and feel of the series while having its own unique flavor. The two major lead lines again divide the window into four sections, and the figures continue to be semi-abstract. The two guard figures, however, have a specific inspiration. The School’s brochure says, “Craig Eder recalls that in 1962 or 1963 he read The Hobbitand The Lord of the Rings, which he loved and gave to LeCompte. Likewise, LeCompte was captivated by the stories and stayed up nights finishing the books. ‘In The Hobbit,’Eder notes, ‘there are underground creatures called orcs. When Rowan made the window, he used orcs, or his idea of what orcs were like, to represent the people who were taking Alban away to his martyrdom.’” Gray is an unusual color for stained glass, and Rowan said, “The gray background suggests the bleakness of the moment.” This window is not entirely dark, and the beautiful orange and pink glass cuts through the gray mood.

Iconography

Here we see Saint Alban being led to execution while imagining he is walking the Way of the Cross. Rowan and Irene picture Alban literally following in the footsteps of his Lord, who is shown carrying His own cross on the way to Calvary. Behind both of them rise the red flames of martyrdom. Allie Benson and Lynne Mitchellwrite in the school’s brochure about the window, “In this window, Alban is walking to his martyrdom and Christ is there in the background sharing in his suffering. ‘The Doctrine of Substituted Love,’ the Rev. Eder explains, ‘is a religious idea basic to the writings of Charles Williams, a good friend of C. S. Lewis’. The doctrine holds that a person can enter into the sorrows, trials and sufferings of another person thereby helping to bear them. The text reads, ‘Bear ye one another’s burdens so that ye may fulfill the law of Christ.’”

“When Eder asked LeCompte the source of his artistic inspiration, he replied, ‘I just tried to imagine what Alban would have thought on his way to having his head chopped off. I thought he would realize that Christ had gone the same way and that was a present reality for him.’”