Saint Phocas of Sinope

1955 – Washington National Cathedral – South Trancept, Southwes Turret Staiway

This is the first of five windows that Rowan and Irene created for the walls of the dark spiral staircase that runs up the southwest turret.  Each of these windows is about 2 and a half feet tall and 8 inches wide.  Here there is a beautiful contrast between the warm reds of Saint Phocas and the cool greens of his garden.  The clear glass that is mixed in throughout gives the window an airy ambiance.  Appropriately, given Saint Phocas’ connection to gardening, the use of clear glass makes this the only stained glass window in the Cathedral that provides a view of the Bishop’s Garden.

Iconography

This is the first window that Rowan and Irene created with Saint Phocas of Sinope as its subject. The second window was done for All Hallows Chapel in Davidsonville, MD in 1962. You can hear Rowan talk about Saint Phocas in the video clip below.

Tradition says that Saint Phocas was a gardener who lived near the Black Sea in Sinope (now Sinop in present-day Turkey).  The Roman Governor of his district heard about Phocas’ teaching of Christianity and ordered him to be executed.  Legend has it that when the men the Romans had sent to kill him arrived in town, 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. You can see him greeting the soldiers in the painted detail of the lower panel. As the top panel illustrates, Saint Phocas is often called the “Saint of the Garden,” and in depicting him with shovel in hand, Rowan and Irene are paying tribute to his legend and his love of gardens.

Year Completed

1955

Artists

Rowan LeCompte

Irene Matz LeCompte

Fabricator

Rowan LeCompte

Irene Matz LeCompte

Location In Building

South Trancept

Southwest Turret Stairway