Pietà with Saints

Photo © Martin Crampin, Imaging the Bible in Wales

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1902

Central hexafoil showing Mary supporting the dead Christ, surrounded by roundels of saints and archangels set in trefoil lights. The saints (from top left, clockwise) are David, Winefride, Thomas, Michael, Gudwal, Raphael, Uriel, Keyne, Gabriel and John. Symbols of the Passion are shown below in quartrefoils.

size: 220 cm (diameter of the central rose window) [approx]
firm/studio: Joshua Clarke & Sons

Cathedral Church of Our Lady of Sorrows, Wrexham
east wall of the chancel (window number: I)

The window was given by Mary Ann, Lady Ffrench, the daughter of the founder of the church.

The design for the window can be found in the Digital Collections of Trinity College Dublin.

The addition of the Welsh saints Keyne (Cain) and Gudwal is unusual. Cain is associated with the southern part of mid-Wales, as a daughter of Brychan. Gudwal, according to the Ghent life of the saint, was thought to be a bishop in Britain, before travelling to Cornwall, and then Britanny. He shares a feast-day with Gurwel, and while S. Baring-Gould and John Fisher thought that they were different saints, Oliver Padel (in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography) conflates Gudwal and Gurwal as one saint.

 (ObjectID=2043 ImageID=4870) Original File Name=_MG_7303.jpg

Record added by Martin Crampin. Last updated on 24-09-2024

 

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• Pietà, 'Vesperbild', 'Marienklage': Christ, either with or without crown of thorns, mourned by Mary 

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• crown (symbol of sovereignty) 
• St Cain or Keyne 
• St David 
• St Gudwal 
• St John the Evangelist, apostle 
• St Thomas, apostle 
• St Winefride, St Gwenfrewy 
• the Archangel Gabriel 
• the Archangel Michael 
• the Archangel Raphael 
• the instruments of the Passion and the five wounded limbs 
• Uriel, archangel 

This window was designed by J. Clarke & Sons from Dublin (Ireland) in 1902. This is the link to the order book that records the commission by Lady French, order No. 383:

http://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/home/index.php?folder_id=3795&pidtopage=MS6058_113&entry_point=113
Submitted by: Marta Bustillo (2016-01-15 16:21:48)
Editor's response: thanks very much for this. Very interesting (but not surprising) that stained glass in Wales was being commissioned from Irish Catholic firms at this time. Although other windows in the church are surely by John Hardman's Birmingham firm, others could also be by Clarke's of Dublin, judging by their style.

Photo © Martin Crampin, Imaging the Bible in Wales

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