The Stained Glass Windows of Saint Mark

Lilies of the Field

“Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Luke 12:27

In Honor of Anne Winship Bates
and Willaford Ranson Leach, Easter 1956

The subject of this window is based upon a teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” (Saint Matthew 6:28, 29; cf. Saint Luke 12:27). This teaching on anxiety and trust has been expanded in the imagination of the artist to produce a pastoral scene of natural beauty with trees, flowers, birds, and a lake. The Archangel Gabriel and a heavenly choir suggest the otherworldly beauty of the scene.
In Saint Matthew 6:25-34, man is bidden to look at nature to find an answer to his questions and problems.

The flower referred to in verse 28, translated as “lilies of the field,” cannot be identified because the word is used of all kinds of flowers; scholars believe the reference here is to the scarlet anemone, an uncommonly beautiful flower abundant in Palestine.

The Easter lily, from Bermuda and Japan, and probably unknown in Palestine in Jesus’ day, has come to have rich meaning in Christian symbolism. It represents purity, innocence, and heavenly bliss as a symbol of the virginity of Mary and of Easter and immortality. The lily refers to the fact that a bulb decaying in the soil produces a new bulb, stem, leaves and flowers, all rising in glory above the dark soil in which the process of death and the release of new life are inseparable, thus signifying the attainment of immortal life though the body perish.
The Archangel Gabriel, sent to Mary to announce that she was to be the mother of Jesus, is depicted as the central figure of the window, holding in his arms a spray of lilies. Saint Gabriel and the lily are associated in Christian symbolism. Other flowers mentioned in the Bible form the border of the scene.

The medallion at the top of the window is a white fleur-de-lis on a background of varying shades of red. This design, said by some authorities to be the iris, is a widely used symbol of the Trinity and also represents the Annunciation and the Virgin Mary.

This window was dedicated by the Reverend Dr. John B. Tate, Pastor of Saint Mark Church, and the Reverend Dr. Albert Barnett of the Candler School of Theology at the Morning Worship Service on Sunday, May 17, 1956.

Mr. and Mrs. Willaford Ransom Leach, who later moved to Florida, have been described as providing a “Ministry of Flowers” wherever they have lived. For several decades the beauty of their floral arrangements silently voiced the praise of God at Saint Mark Church. Mrs. Leach gave the leaded-glass window in the Richardson Classroom in memory of Mrs. W. H. Hall and provided flowers for the Richardson and Hill Classes. A unique feature of this sanctuary window is the blending of the Biblical idea with the personal life of Mr. and Mrs. Leach. The lilies in the window are reproduced from photographs made in their Florida garden; one plant, bearing forty-two blossoms on one stalk, won the National Horticultural Achievement Award in 1945, and is depicted in the right panel of the window.