Historical Setting: Jarrow, 794 C.E.
The baker and I are waiting in a monk’s chapel near the river, with the monastery gardens all around. Just beyond the wall is the place where the grasses grow and grains are harvested.
But here I am with this commoner, a baker, a village merchant who has a very different notion of fearing God than do I. I think of the “fear of God” as the experience of being overwhelmed by grandeur, like seeing from a mountain top — the earth and the sky and even the oceans stretch out in one view, with the details of life, the houses and even the great towers of a fortress or a church become miniaturized by the wideness of view. Recognizing God in the grandeur is what I call awe.
But then, I suppose, the smaller view of awe could be fear. And this man truly “fears” God. He puts onto God the worst notions of an earthly tyrant. And the worldly view of the ordained humankinds — the monks and priests. This does nothing to dissuade the notion of God as a human-like earthly man filling in the office as a visible representative of the invisible God. I don’t share his fear.
We are assigned this empty chapel as our waiting place. It would be a large enough size for choirs of monks and a procession of people receiving the elements of the mass, but it is not a well-lit sanctuary where a priest can be clearly seen presiding over worship. The window in this room casts an unusual light, filtered as sunlight but transformed by the window itself. Like a holy man, who speaks for God, but is not God, this window speaks of light, but interprets the light to cause earthly amazement.
This window [Footnote] is itself, an art piece as fine as any glazier could set, with glass sections carefully cut and sized, and set together to fill the frame with lead between the sections. A glass window allows a Roman styled basilica with its arches for light but without a view beyond the room. It makes its own view. The sunlight streams in through the tinted glass in colors. It is as though a mosaic is laid in tile but with sunlight coming from the outside dancing the light in colors that fill the room.
[Footnote] https://stephenliddell.co.uk/2018/08/22/st-pauls-monastery-in-jarrow-and-the-oldest-stained-glass-window-in-the-world/ retrieved 6-23-25
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 