Church's stained glass windows returned to former glory
FORMER GLORY — A long project was completed recently at All Saints Catholic Church in New Richland, where restored stained glass windows, above, were installed. (Star Eagle photo by Melanie Piltingsrud)
By MELANIE PILTINGSRUD
Contributing Writer
The congregation at All Saints Catholic Church in New Richland needed no other reason to celebrate Christmas with thankful hearts this year than the commemoration of the birth of their Lord and Savior. Nonetheless, they have additional cause to celebrate; the last of the stained glass windows on the east and west sides of the sanctuary was reinstalled this week after being repaired and re-leaded.
The windows were originally ordered from the Tyrolese Art Glass Co. in Innsbruck, Austria approximately 90 years ago. Cathedral Crafts, Inc., based in Winona, has spent the last four months in the long process of re-leading the glorious windows that depict various scenes from the life of Christ.
“We take them down to the studio, and we basically puzzle them all apart,” says Caleb Penic, whose grandfather, LaVern Campbell, founded the stained glass window company 54 years ago. During the breakdown process, the windows are cleaned in a bath with various cleaning solutions and polished. “And then we rebuild them like they’re new windows,” says Penic.
The reinstallation process involves putting in wood stops to hold the windows in place, after which putty and caulk are used to hold them permanently. Penic installs a screw at every other lead joint, and after installation, the wood frames and caulk bead are painted.
If stained glass windows aren’t maintained, they can become damaged. Penic says one of the first things to start deteriorating in old stained glass windows is the “cement” that holds the individual pieces of glass in place. “That’ll start falling out and then the window starts buckling,” says Penic. Some of the most likely pieces to break are the faces or “medallions,” as they are called. The extra firings required for these pieces, as well as the cleaning process, makes faces more brittle. Penic points out Mary’s face on one window, which had to be repaired with a lead line through it.
Another repair had to be made on the same panel, which depicts Mary holding baby Jesus. If the pieces are fired properly, the paint virtually becomes part of the glass. But the firing process was much harder a century ago, and, because each individual piece was painted for the All Saints project, it meant the kiln in Innsbruck was filled with an enormous amount of glass. Penic says, “It’s just a lot easier with the fancy kilns we’ve got today.” The less efficient firing process of a century ago meant that sometimes pieces were not fired properly, resulting in flaking of the paint. For this window, it meant that baby Jesus’ face and body had completely peeled off. Fortunately, Cathedral Crafts, Inc. employs an amazingly talented artist from Peru, Christian Nihara, who restored the infant Jesus to his former glory.
Another problem the window company encountered with these particular windows is that they didn’t fit the spaces they were intended to fill. When they arrived from Austria, they were slightly too small. “When we pulled them out, there was an inch-and-a-half gap,” says Penic. The original installers had solved the problem with a large amount of putty. “It was holding really well,” says Penic. “It was a good idea.” The craftspeople at Cathedral Crafts, Inc. decided to use wood to close the gap, and the effect looks flawless.
“These windows are pretty spectacular,” Penic says of the All Saints’ stained glass. “We’ve done a lot of windows. [Jason Petersen and I] have done a Tiffany window, we’ve done windows from the Czech Republic – that was down in Spillville, Iowa. These ones are the best of all of those.”
Cathedral Crafts, Inc. not only repairs old stained glass, they also fashion completely new windows, and install storm systems. Per Penic, “We’ll take off the old exterior storm system – the storm glass on the outside of the stained glass – scrape all the paint. repair a lot of wood, a lot of wood rot, repair all that, repaint it, and then slap on the new one.” The classical European style was not to have a storm system to protect the stained glass. But, as Penic points out, with windows of the age and detail of those at All Saints, “They’re kind of priceless, so it’s a really good thing to have a storm system protecting them.”
Prior to All Saints, Cathedral Crafts, Inc. re-leaded the windows of St. Augustine’s Church in Austin. “We go all over,” says Penic. “Just this last summer we were in Arlington, Virginia.” Once the All Saints windows are finished, the company will make its way to Tyler, Texas.
Cathedral Crafts, Inc. also installed a storm system at the St. Ann Catholic Church in Janesville. It was at that time when Father Michael Cronin approached them with the possibility of re-leading the windows at All Saints Catholic Church. “They were old, and we wanted to keep them restored,” he says.
According to Father Cronin, the congregation raised $90,000 to re-lead the 10 windows on the east and west sides of the sanctuary. $50,000 in additional funds are still needed to re-lead the large stained glass windows at the north and south ends of the church, the southern window being unique in depicting an American flag and a WWI era American soldier in olive drab.
With the stained glass windows of All Saints Catholic Church newly re-leaded – and baby Jesus restored just in time for the Nativity – the congregation does indeed have additional cause to celebrate this Christmas season.