In Peoria, Illinois

Windows in Peoria, Illinois
St. Francis Hospital Chapel Holy card-like detail of window below

Angel window Annunciation

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St. Mary's Cathedral

The Columbus window with the coat-of-arms of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain in the upper quatrefoil. In the upper medallion, the Santa Maria touches San Salvador on Oct. 12, 1492, with the Pinta and the Nina in the background. The center quatrefoil has the coat-of-arms of Columbus. In the lower medallion he plants the Cross in the western hemisphere. A Spanish Benedictine accompanied him on his second voyage.

Detail showing the upper medallion

Detail showing the Columbus coat-of-arms & lower medallion

The Santa Maria (Saint or Holy Mary) brought Columbus across the ocean to an island he named San Salvador (Holy Savior). While this happened in the history of the New World, Holy Mary herself brought Jesus, the Holy Savior, into the world.
Scholars are said to agree that Columbus made landfall at an island in the Bahamas, which its inhabitants called Guanahani. While the ship did well in crossing the Atlantic, she ran aground 74 days later on Christmas day, 1492. One may muse that this can suggest that Mary was here to stay, and on the very birthday of her Son. Where the ship ran aground was at the site of Môle Saint-Nicolas, Haiti. Timbers from the ship were used in building this place, originally called La Navidad, Christmas in Spanish.

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St. Martin de Porres

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