This window depicts two women religious adoring the Child Jesus in an apparition. As with the previous window, the identity of the two saints portrayed are "mysteries" to us. With the same questions we asked about the previous window and the stained glass craftsmen's intentions, we can explore a few possibilities here. 

One combination of saints who were contemporaries of each other and who might appeal to the German immigrants of this parish is St. Hildegarde von Bingen {lived: 1098-1179; feast: September 17} and St. Elizabeth of Schonau {1126-1164; June 18}. Hildegarde was the Benedictine Abbess of Rupertsburg, and as the first great German mystic was known as the "Sibyl of the Rhine". This poet, prophetess, and physician composed many hymns and canticles. She was unafraid to rebuke the pride and sinfulness she saw in some priests, bishops, popes, princes, and emperors. She experienced various visions of Christ. She often corresponded with her fellow Benedictine, Elizabeth of Schonau, who also had many visions of the life of Christ. The two nuns were never actually in the same monastery, however. 

It would appear that the women seen here were kneeling at an altar adoring the Blessed Sacrament in a Tabernacle or a monstrance when they had this vision of the Infant Jesus. There were many saints who had visions of Christ at Mass, especially during Communion, including St. Gertrude the Great {1256-1302; November 16} and her pupil, St. Mechtildis {1241-1298; November 19}, both Benedictines at Helfta in Saxony. Other holy women who beheld Jesus when receiving the Eucharist include Blessed Mary of Oignes {1175-1213; June 23}, Blessed Angela of Foligno {1248-1309; February 28}, and Blessed Veronica of Binasco {1445-1497; January 13}. Some women even held the Infant Jesus in their arms during their visions, including St. Catherine of Bologna {died 1463; March 9} and St. Agnes of Montepulciano {1268- 1317; April 20}, who was admired by St. Catherine of Siena {1347-1380; April 30}. 

It seems most likely that one of the women portrayed here is St. Angela Merici {1470-1540; May 31}, founder of the Ursuline Order of nuns. For many years the children of St. Martin's were educated by Ursulines who came from Germany. The order's old convent and chapel are located a few blocks north on Shelby Street. The convent is now an apartment building, and the chapel (the steeple of which looks like a smaller copy of St. Martin's spire) is home to a "Messianic Jewish" congregation. St. Martin's old pfarrschule (parish school), built in 1897, can be seen on the opposite side of Gray Street. No longer owned by the parish, its classrooms are now apartments. St. Angela Merici is known to have had various visions during her lifetime. The other saint pictured may be St. Ursula {died ca. 451; October 21}, for whom Angela named her order. She was, according to legend, the leader of a group of virgins martyred by Huns in Cologne. Although not a member of a religious order per se, she is sometimes portrayed in a religious habit because she and her fellow martyrs had consecrated their virginity to Christ. 

Another possibility is that St. Angela is portrayed with St. Clare of Assisi (although the depiction of the latter woman's habit would be inaccurate). As a disciple of St. Francis, Clare {1193-1253; August 12}, would probably have had devotees among the Franciscan clergy who once staffed St. Martin's parish. She founded the "Poor Ladies of San Damiano", better known as the "Poor Clares", and established monasteries in Italy, France, and Germany. She is known as the Saint of the Eucharist. Once, as a hostile army of Muslims neared her convent, Clare placed a pyx containing the Blessed Sacrament on a wall where the enemy could see it. Prostrating herself before it, she prayed for her religious community's safety. She then heard the Child Jesus say, "I will always have them in My care." The attackers grew fearful at the sight and turned away, leaving Clare and her Sisters unharmed. 

While the identities of the women portrayed in this window may be mysteries to us, the devotion they show to the Child Jesus was once widespread and well-known. Of our Lord's infancy and childhood, the Gospels reveal very little. If canonical accounts existed about the life of the God-Man as a Child, they would certainly make for fascinating reading. But perhaps what we would notice most about these "hidden years" is that they were so ordinary (so ordinary that they did not merit a place in the Gospels). Jesus, it appears, lived His daily life without evident greatness, growing up obedient to Joseph and Mary, following the laws, rituals and customs of the Jewish religion. As the "carpenter's son", He learned manual labor. The true significance of these years does not lie in any specific events, but in the very fact that God became man, that He came to earth as a baby and went through all the stages of human growth until He began His public ministry. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the hidden life at Nazareth allows everyone to enter into fellowship with Jesus by the most ordinary events of daily life. 

In the various Catholic devotions to the Child Jesus, the faithful ponder the great mystery of our omnipotent God becoming a frail little Child. In this mystery are great contrasts of majesty and humility, of power and weakness. He is all-powerful, yet in His first years on earth He had to be nursed and carried about by His Mother, the Virgin Mary. He gives us His law, yet He was obedient to Mary and His earthly foster-father, St. Joseph. He created all things, yet was born impoverished of material goods. He is the immortal God, yet as man He will die for us. Love for the Infant Savior teaches us humility; it teaches us to accept - as He did - our human smallness and poverty. The devotion also reminds us that in Jesus we become children of God. 

Many saints and others through the years have recognized the value of devotion to Christ's childhood. Among the most recent and beloved of these devotees is St. Therese of Lisieux {1873-1897; October 3}. Born Marie Francoise Therese Martin, she became a Carmelite nun and in religion took the name Sister Therese of the Child Jesus. Through her devotion to the Child Jesus, she sought to be holy by doing small, everyday tasks with perfect love for God and neighbor. Her writings about this "Little Way" have earned for her the title of Doctor of the Church. A statue depicting her kneeling in Heaven before the Child to whom she was so devoted and His Mother may be seen in St. Martin's between windows 2S and 3S. On the cross in this statue is an image of the Holy Face (shortly before her death, Therese had added "and of the Holy Face" to her religious name). St. Therese, the "Little Flower of Jesus", is the patroness of the Church's missions. 

Among the saints who have been blessed with visions and apparitions of the Child Jesus, two are represented in statuary in St. Martin's. One of these is St. Anthony of Padua {1195-1231; June 13}, depicted in one statue located just inside the Shelby Street entrance and in another near window 3N. An associate of this Franciscan once saw him being tenderly caressed by the Child, who stood on a devotional book which the saint had been reading. St. Rose {1586-1617; August 30} also had various visions of Christ, who sometimes appeared as an Infant. This Dominican nun was born in Lima, Peru, and was canonized the first saint of the New World by Pope Clement X in 1671. A statue of her, crowned by roses, is located above Mary's altar at the front of church. 

In the window we see here, the Holy Child of Nazareth is surrounded by a special form of nimbus called a mandorla (Italian for "almond"). This is an almond- shaped aureole consisting of two intersecting arcs which encompass the entire body. It is a method for depicting divinity by portraying a field of radiance and splendor encircling the subject's body and emerging from it. Owing to its hard shell, the almond was an ancient Greek symbol for closing valuable contents in an impenatrable casing. The contents of the "almond" seen in this window are certainly the most valuable ever given by God! The mandorla usually appears only in art of the Transfigured or Ascended Christ, or of Mary after her Assumption. It is often supported or surrounded by angels. 

Projecting from a column to the left of the altar these saints are kneeling before is a candle, which may possibly represent the vigil light or lamp. Catholic churches keep a flame constantly burning near the place where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved to symbolize Christ's constant Presence there. Similarly, the Jews kept a lamp near the Ark of the Covenant "to burn before the Lord regularly" {Leviticus 24:3}. In St. Martin's, there are two red-glassed Eucharistic vigil lights - one near the Tabernacle on the High Altar, and another at the entrance to the Divine Mercy Chapel. 

Fittingly, this is the nearest window to the parish's Infant of Prague statue, located by the rear side entrance. This is a copy of the miraculous statue of the Infant Christ, devotion to which has spread from Czechoslovakia throughout the world. It depicts the "Little King" wearing a crown and holding an orb. The clothing which adorns the statue is changed to match the liturgical colors of the day or season. Thereby, Christ, our invisible Priest, is depicted dressed in the same colored "vestments" as the celebrant of the Mass, our visible priest. 

- Blessed Guerric of Igny (1070-1157)

- St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)