The Fiery Chariot: A Stained Glass Window for the Church of Mary, Mother of the Church in Garevac

In 2014 the parish of Mary, Mother of the Church in Garevac, Bosnia and Herzegovina, asked Stanisic Studio for one new window, and it was a big one: a single stained glass window about 12 ft 6 in wide and 32 ft 10 in tall, about 345 square feet of glass. Stevan Stanisic designed it, and the studio made it in its atelier in Sombor, Republic of Serbia.

A parish rebuilt

Garevac lies near Modriča, in the north of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Archdiocese of Vrhbosna. According to the parish history, the parish was founded in 1975, and its church, dedicated to Mary, Mother of the Church, was begun in 1972 and consecrated on 13 August 1976. On 27 June 1992 the church was burned and its 115 ft bell tower destroyed. From 2000 the pastor Ilija Matanović restored the parish house and most of the church, and his successor, Fr. Filip Brajinović, completed the restoration and built a new bell tower in 2013. The new window came the following year, under Fr. Brajinović.

The same history recalls that the oldest church in the Modriča area, from the 14th century, was dedicated to the prophet Elijah, until the river Bosna destroyed it in 1666.

Elijah and the chariot of fire

The window shows the moment told in the Second Book of Kings: as Elijah and Elisha walk on together by the Jordan, a chariot of fire with horses of fire parts them, and Elijah goes up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha, left behind, takes up the mantle that has fallen from his master.

In the window Elijah sits high in the chariot in a blue robe, white bearded, his right hand raised in blessing. White horses with golden harness rise ahead of him, and the great wheels turn in red and orange flames. Below, Elisha in a dark cloak reaches up toward him, beside the blue water of the Jordan, green cypresses and a path of light. Around the figures the background is a mosaic of clear blues, turquoise, yellow and green glass, so the whole window glows even on a grey day.

A strong grid of steel bars divides the window into panels. The design was drawn so that the figures move freely across that grid, and the lines of the lead and the bars work together rather than against each other.

From cartoon to glass in Sombor

Every stained glass window begins as a drawing. For Garevac the cartoon was drawn at full size in pencil, so large that it had to be laid out on the floor of the atelier, sheet by sheet, with every panel and every bar marked. From it the glass was cut, the faces, hands, hair and drapery painted by hand and fired in the kiln, and each panel leaded and cemented before the journey to Garevac.

Installation

The window was set in place from a tall scaffold raised over the choir loft. Panel by panel, the picture grew upward from the water of the Jordan to the white horses at the top of the pointed arch.

Light inside and out

The window fills the gable above the entrance, over the choir loft. From inside, it faces the altar across the whole nave, under the wooden beams of the roof and the warm yellow walls. At night, with the church lit, it shines outward over the entrance, and the story of Elijah can be read from the road.

The nave, seen from the altar The facade at night

You can see more of the parish and its feasts on the website of the parish of Garevac.

Church: Church of Mary, Mother of the Church, Garevac, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Pastor: Fr. Filip Brajinović
Work: 1 stained glass window, about 12 ft 6 in x 32 ft 10 in (about 345 sq ft)
Subject: the prophet Elijah taken up in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2)
Design: Stevan Stanisic
Fabrication: Stanisic Studio, Sombor, Republic of Serbia
Year: 2014