Story of St Bede’s College shown in light

Generously donated by St Bede’s old boy Chris Wilson, and brought to life by stained-glass artist Graham Stewart, the windows in the Chapel of St Bede reflect the people, faith and traditions that have shaped the college for more than a century.

In a video, rector Jon McDowall explained the story woven through the windows, from Bishop John Grimes and Archbishop Francis Redwood, to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Marist tradition, St Bede the Venerable, the Eucharist and Holy Spirit, and the journey of a Bedean from his first steps through the college gates to the day he leaves as “a man of character, faith and community”.

“When we commissioned these windows,” Mr McDowall said, “we gave the artist a single instruction: Christ at the centre. As Christ is the centre of our lives, so this chapel is the centre of our school.”

The boy entering the college gates is first met by Mary, Mr McDowall said.

“She does not dominate these windows. She is present within them in the light, in the flowing lines. Presence not prominence. That is the Marist spirit – to walk beside our boys quietly, faithfully, not only when things go well but also when they don’t.

“From her comes the whole vision of Jean-Claude Colin, an education that begins not in the head, but in the heart, leading gently, walking humbly, meeting each boy exactly where he is.”

The windows are meant to be about formation: faith and learning, belonging and brotherhood, and the call to live the college motto, “Fide et Opere, By Faith and By Works”.

Mr McDowall said they are a lasting gift to the chapel and to generations of Bedeans still to come, allowing the story of St Bede’s to be encountered, literally, in light.

FULL STORY

Our Story in Light (St Bede’s College/YouTube)