Photo – Peter Swanson

Saint Phocas

1962 – All Hallows Chapel, Davidsonville, MD

This window is an interesting above-and-below composition.  Saint Phocas is digging with his shovel, which goes into the lower panel, but then the rest of that panel celebrates the bounty of local farms. The painting in the window is clearly from Rowan’s hand, but there is none of his characteristic crosshatching. The glass is fairly opaque and makes for a more muted light in the church.

Iconography

This is the second window that Rowan and Irene created with Saint Phocas of Sinope as the subject. The first one was done for Washington National Cathedral in 1955 and you can hear Rowan talk about Saint Phocas in the video clip below. 

Tradition says Saint Phocas was a gardener who lived near the Black Sea in Sinope.  The Roman Governor of his district heard about his teaching of Christianity and ordered him to be executed.  According to the legend, when the men the Romans had sent to kill him arrived, St. Phocas put them up for the night, then dug his own grave and insisted they carry out their duty to kill him in the morning; after some protest, they obliged. 

The window is dedicated to the family of Benjamin Watkins, a farmer in the Davidsonville community.  In depicting Saint Phocas the gardener, Rowan and Irene have paid homage to the hard work of this local farming family.

Year Completed

1962

Artists

Irene Matz LeCompte

Rowan LeCompte

Fabricator

Irene Matz LeCompte

Rowan LeCompte

Location In Building

South Wall