Lawrence Bradford Saint (January 30, 1885 – June 22, 1961) was an American
stained glass
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
artist. His work is most notably featured in the
Washington National Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral, is an American cathedral of the Episcopal Church. The cathedral is located in Washington, D.C., the cap ...
where he served as the head of the stained glass department.
Early life
Lawrence Saint was born in 1885 in
Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania
Sharpsburg is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, northeast of downtown Pittsburgh, along the Allegheny River. In 1900, nearly 7,000 people lived here; in 1920, the population peaked at just over 8,900 people. The population was 3, ...
, just outside
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
. His father, Joseph A. Saint, was also an artist, who specialized in
landscape painting
Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compos ...
and
silhouette
A silhouette ( , ) is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhou ...
cutting. Although never formally trained nor immensely successful commercially, Joseph was a talented artist and continued to paint until he was 76 years old.
When Lawrence was a young boy, the family moved to De Haven, Pennsylvania (now
Allison Park
Allison Park is a census-designated place in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is a suburb of Pittsburgh and is located within Hampton, McCandless, Shaler, Indiana and West Deer townships. It had a population of 21,552 at the ...
), which was very rural in the late 19th century. Joseph enjoyed the countryside as it inspired him in painting landscapes. They soon moved again to the East End of Pittsburgh where Joseph worked in novelty advertising. At the age of 12, Lawrence sold newspapers. Then at 13, he left school and worked at a
wallpaper
Wallpaper is a material used in interior decoration to decorate the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" (so t ...
shop where he learned about color harmony. During his spare time at the shop, he would make sketches of horses or people in the street.
Education
After seeing one of these sketches, a stained glass artist offered Saint a job as an apprentice in his studio. It was there that Saint learned to grind paint and trace patterns.
In 1905, after a three-year apprenticeship, Saint entered the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...](_blank)
, Pennsylvania to study portrait painting. His second year there, he entered the
Cresson Traveling Scholarship The Cresson Traveling Scholarship, also known as the William Emlen Cresson Memorial Traveling Scholarship, is a two-year scholarship for foreign travel and/or study awarded annually to art students at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Phi ...
, a contest that offered a $500 trip to Europe. After entering, Saint learned that he was required to submit a drawing of a nude woman. Due to his Christian convictions, Saint was ready to drop out of the contest. But a friend suggest he ask to have the drawing exchanged for another. The scholarship committee agreed, and Saint went on to win the scholarship.
That trip to Europe would be the first of 5, and was the first time he came face to face with Medieval stained glass. This began his fascination with stained glass which led him to in-depth study of styles and techniques.
His last year of art school, Saint worked at an Italian mission on the south side of Philadelphia. It was there that he met Katherine Wright Proctor, who later became his wife.
Work
Immediately after graduating from art school, Saint got a job with the H.F. Petgen Company in Pittsburgh. It was here that he designed his first stained glass window, a
rose window
Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' w ...
for the Catholic Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in
East Liberty, Pittsburgh
East Liberty is a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's East End. It is bordered by Highland Park, Morningside, Stanton Heights, Garfield, Friendship, Shadyside and Larimer, and is represented on Pittsburgh City Council by Councilwoman D ...
. The window was a
mosaic
A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...
depicting the signs of the
Four Evangelists.
Saint wanted to travel to Europe again in 1910. So, in order to take his fiancée along with him, they got married just before the trip. The simple ceremony was held at Katherine's house on June 10. The trip to Europe became their honeymoon, and it lasted just over a year. Katherine was a graduate of
Wellesley College
Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...
where she had studied art history, so she was very supportive and helpful to Lawrence in his work. Together they visited and studied many churches in England and France including
Chartes Cathedral
Chartres Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres (french: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres), is a Roman Catholic church in Chartres, France, about southwest of Paris, and is the seat of the Bishop of Chartres. Mostly con ...
,
Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the ...
, and
Sainte Chapelle
The Sainte-Chapelle (; en, Holy Chapel) is a royal chapel in the Gothic style, within the medieval Palais de la Cité, the residence of the Kings of France until the 14th century, on the Île de la Cité in the River Seine in Paris, France.
Co ...
in Paris. They would often climb up the sides of the buildings to get a closer look at the windows in order for Lawrence to make drawings of them.
Saint's drawings of stained glass windows were published by the
Victoria and Albert Royal Museum which included many of them in the book called ''Stained Glass of the Middle Ages in England and France'' published in 1913.
Saint eventually discovered a process to make his own stained glass in his backyard studio. This was necessary since the finest quality glass was not available on the commercial market at the time.
At the height of Saint's career, he was working to produce several windows for the
National Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral, is an American cathedral of the Episcopal Church. The cathedral is located in Washington, D.C., the ca ...
in Washington, DC. His first assignment was the three parable windows in St. Mary's Chapel north of the
choir
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...
. Each of the three windows depicted seven of Christ's parables. His next assignment was the four miracle windows in St. John's Chapel south of the
choir
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...
. He also created the large
rose window
Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' w ...
in the northern transept, the three windows beneath it (Foretellers of Judgment), four other windows in the north transept, and three clerestory windows above the choir on the south wall (The Angel Windows).
Saint also served for seven years as the head of the Cathedral's Department of Stained Glass.
The
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
in New York City filmed an educational video in Saint's studio about stained glass.
Today, some of Saint's work can also be viewed at the
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...
in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
, Ohio.
Among Saint's works as a painter were detailed copies of portraits by a number of the
Dutch Masters
Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence.
The new Dutch Republ ...
such as
Jan Vermeer
Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...
as well as original paintings of his own done in the style of masters such as
Frans Hals
Frans Hals the Elder (, , ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, chiefly of individual and group portraits and of genre works, who lived and worked in Haarlem.
Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century group ...
. Saint was a serious student and scholar of the techniques of these 16th and 17th century masters, and to that end when creating works in their style instead of using commercial oil paints he made his own from scratch using the same materials, pigments, formulas, and manufacturing techniques developed by Dutch masters.
Personal life
![Saint factory](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Saint_factory.jpg)
The Saint family lived in
Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania
Huntingdon Valley is a village, as well as a suburban mailing address located in Lower Moreland Township, Upper Moreland Township and Abington Township all in Montgomery County, and in small sections of Upper Southampton Township and Lower S ...
.
Saint was a
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
who was well known for his dedication to the Christian faith. From 1920 to 1933, he was a ruling elder at the
Huntingdon Valley Presbyterian Church
Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cromwell was born there ...
, which is located just a short walk from his house and workshop. In the late 1950s Saint attended Bethany Baptist Church in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia where he was a mentor to the church's children. Each child would receive a shiny penny for any bible verse they could recite to him. He inspired many with his outstanding faith and kindness. He was also a member of the
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
.
He and his wife Katherine had eight children – seven boys and one girl. As parents, the Saints were described as being religiously strict, but generally permissive in other areas. Four of his children grew up to work in full-time Christian ministry. Phil was the only child of the family to follow his father as an artist. He used chalk drawings in connection with his preaching ministry. Saint's only daughter,
Rachel
Rachel () was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her aun ...
, was a missionary to
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
and later to
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...
where she was instrumental in reaching the
Huaorani
The Huaorani, Waorani, or Waodani, also known as the Waos, are an Indigenous people from the Amazonian Region of Ecuador ( Napo, Orellana, and Pastaza Provinces) who have marked differences from other ethnic groups from Ecuador. The alternate ...
tribe with the gospel.
Nate was a
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
pilot who also went to
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...
. In 1956, Nate was killed during
Operation Auca
Operation Auca was an attempt by five Evangelical Christian missionaries from the United States to bring Christianity to the Waodani or Huaorani people of the rain forest of Ecuador. The Huaorani, also known pejoratively as Aucas (a modificatio ...
, an earlier attempt to reach the
Huaorani
The Huaorani, Waorani, or Waodani, also known as the Waos, are an Indigenous people from the Amazonian Region of Ecuador ( Napo, Orellana, and Pastaza Provinces) who have marked differences from other ethnic groups from Ecuador. The alternate ...
.
On June 22, 1961, Saint died of a heart attack at 76 years old. He is buried at
Mount Vernon Cemetery in Philadelphia.
Bibliography
*''Stained glass of the middle ages in England & France, painted by Lawrence B. Saint, described by Hugh Arnold.'' (London: Black, 1913)
*''Knight of the Cross'' (Philadelphia: G. W. Jacobs, 1914) A modern ''Pilgrim's Progress.''
*''The memorial windows in the Washington cathedral to Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine Maury, U.S.N., the Honorable Myron T. Herrick
ndJames Parmelee, esq.'' (Washington: private printing, 1940)
*''Ponderin' Pete'' (Cleveland: Union Gospel Press, 1944) Folksy novel about becoming a Christian.
*''The romance of stained glass, by Lawrence Saint: a story of his experiences and experiments.'' (Huntingdon Valley, Penna.: self-published, 1959) This is a mimeographed, 8.5 x 11 inch, stapled chapbook of more than 64 pages.
Gallery
The Parable Windows (1929–30) – Washington National Cathedral, St. Mary's Chapel
Image:St. Mary's Chapel window1 (Washington National Cathedral).jpg.JPG
Image:St. Mary's Chapel window2 (Washington National Cathedral).jpg
File:St. Mary's Chapel window3 (Washington National Cathedral).jpg
The Miracle Windows (1931) – Washington National Cathedral, St. John's Chapel
Image:St. John's Chapel window1 (Washington National Cathedral).jpg
Image:St. John's Chapel window2 (Washington National Cathedral).jpg
Image:St. John's Chapel window3 (Washington National Cathedral).jpg
Image:St. John's Chapel window4 (Washington National Cathedral).jpg
Other work at Washington National Cathedral
Image:Washington Cathedral North Rose.JPG, The North Rose Window (1932), depicting the Last Judgment
The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Reckoning, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, Doomsday, Day of Resurrection or The Day of the Lord (; ar, یوم القيامة, translit=Yawm al-Qiyāmah or ar, یوم الدین, translit=Yawm ad-Dīn, ...
Image:Washington Cathedral Deborah and Barak.JPG, The Deborah and Barak Window (1933), north transept, west wall
Image:Lawrence Saint Angel Windows.JPG, The Angel Windows (1934), south clerestory choir windows
Image:Foretellers of Judgement (Washington National Cathedral).jpg , The Foretellers of Judgment (1935), directly beneath the North Rose Window
File:Truth Window (Washington National Cathedral).jpg, The Truth Window (1936), first of the Hildrup windows, north transept east wall
Image:Falsehood Window (Washington National Cathedral).jpg, The Falsehood Window (1936) second of the Hildrup windows, north transept east wall
"Dutch Master" Paintings
References
* Berberian, Martha Saint. ''The Mystery of Stained Glass: The Story of Lawrence B. Saint''. (1998)
* Hitt, Russell T. ''Jungle Pilot''. Discovery House Publishers. (1997)
*
Time Magazine
''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...
article
Saint's Saint (July 20, 1936)
Washington National Cathedral, North Rose
External links
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*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint, Lawrence
1885 births
1961 deaths
People from Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania
American Presbyterians
Artists from Pittsburgh
American stained glass artists and manufacturers
Burials at Mount Vernon Cemetery (Philadelphia)
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni