St John Vianney

We are pleased to have been invited to create another window for Sacred Heart Cathedral, Kamloops. This one is to celebrate St. John Vianney, and to create the companion window to our recent St. Kateri Tekakwitha project. I've just finished the cartoon and we'll be creating the cutline and selecting glass next week.

St. John Vianney was the Curé of Ars, born near Lyons, France on 8th May 1786 and died 4th August 1859; he is the patron saint of priests. His primary vocation was the direction of souls. During the last ten years of his life he spent between sixteen and eighteen hours a day in the confessional. His guidance was characterized by common sense and remarkable insight and was sought by bishops, priests, young men and women in doubt as to their vocation, persons in all sorts of difficulties, and those suffering from illness.

We have chosen to depict him holding his prayer book and with the Basilica of Ars in the background. The Eucharistic symbols of the host and chalice are depicted in the lower section under the dedication inscription. At his feet is a rose bush symbolizing the seal of the Confessional. In early Christianity the rose became a symbol of confidentiality, and the doors of Confessionals are sometimes decorated with this image.

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