Essentia Health – Hospital Chapel
The last meeting between Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica is one of the most profoundly touching stories in the Christian tradition — a story of love, longing, and the sharing of lives well-lived. It comes from the sixth century. Scholastica, knowing she was near death, asked her brother to stay one more night so they could continue talking of spiritual things. Benedict refused — he had his Rule to follow, his monks waiting. So Scholastica put her head in her hands and prayed. A storm rose instantly, so violent that no one could leave. Benedict understood. She had loved much, and God had answered.
That night Benedict saw her soul ascending to heaven in the form of a dove. Later he saw the whole world gathered into a single ray of light.
The Benedictine Sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery came to this commission with a clear and beautiful vision. They wanted this ancient story retold for today — not with the trappings of a Byzantine icon, but in a way that young people could recognize and feel. They wanted the figures to be present, human, emotionally true. They were struck by my design’s rendering of the shaft of light — a detail of the story not widely known — and the dove. I was honored to meet the sisters at their convent. They are deeply well-read women, and before I began designing they sent me a pile of books — on Benedict, on Scholastica, on the Benedictine tradition — to read in preparation.
At its heart, this window is about love: agape, fraternal, friendship. Love and remembering, love and healing, love and loss — with love and eternal hope. The gesture of wanting to be together one last time, to say goodbye, to recognize the hope we have for eternal life — this is a story that will be recognized in a hospital chapel. Moments like this, an embrace of gratitude, a miracle, or a goodbye happen every day.
The window is 12 by 13 feet, and carries a quality rare in architectural glass: it is designed to be experienced from both sides — from within the chapel and from the hospital hallway outside. Those passing by in the corridor encounter the window as a luminous presence in the wall. Those gathered inside for prayer or reflection encounter it fully, the figures and light alive within the space of worship. The glass is painted by hand throughout with vitreous enamels on plate glass, without lead lines — a seamless surface that allows light to move through it uninterrupted, shifting with the hours of the day.
