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The Rose Window

This window was given to the Glory of God and in memory of the Reverend William Vann Savage, D. D. (1864-1931), Рastor, Churchland Baptist Church, 1897-1931, and his wife, Mattie William Savage. Mattie Savage Hathaway, their daughter, was the donor.

Unlike "true" rose windows - circular fixtures that hark back to the Rose of Sharon and to the stylized, five-sided Epiphany Star - the Churchland Baptist rose window, located on the church's main facade, is lancet-shaped. Legend has it that roses, before the Fall of Man, grew without thorns in the Garden of Eden; and since Roman Catholic dogma holds that the Virgin Mary was born without Original Sin, the thornless rose thus became one of her chief symbols. As almost all great churches of Europe were dedicated to Mary, the rose window is usually the most spectacular in each. Their patterns feature intertwining flowers and vines, the abstract designs of which leave such windows open to various interpretations.