Rose Window

Artist: Unknown

Year: Unknown

Location: Saint Chapel, Paris, France

Medium: Glass, Metallic Salt

Dimensions: Unknown

“And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of this book… Do not seal up the words of this prophecy of this book, for the time is near… ‘I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”   ~ Revelation 22: 7, 10 & 16

The Rose Window in the Saint Chapel is situated at the back of the chapel. The door to enter the chapel is almost right underneath the Rose Window. Therefore, as I entered the building and gasped at the picture of beauty in front of me I was unaware of an even more breath taking sight behind me. I walked further into the chapel to better take in the wonder I say; I turned around and my jaw quite literally dropped, my eyes opened wider as if they could not capture the entire image and before I could stop myself I exclaimed, “Oh!” In a few moments I composed myself because I realized how complete of an idiot I looked, but my wonder and amazement were still there.

The Rose Window captured my interest even more when I started reading information on it. Similar to the rest of the stain glass windows in Saint Chapel, the Rose Window tells a story with the images in each window piece. The story being told in this window is that of Revelation; with Jesus in the middle and prophesies of revelation in the surrounding sections.  This served as a constant reminder to those in the congregation of the impending return of Christ and judgment of the world.

As I read the first few pages in Revelation I found and interesting verse, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, ¹¹ saying, “Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea” (Revelation 1: 10-11).  Now even though Saint Chapel is not listed among these churches it is a descendent of those churches which were instrumental in the development of the Christian Faith.  Therefore, I find it very fitting that they would choose to have a constant reminder of that very revelation in their chapel.

God commands us to always remember that this life is not eternal, this world will end, our lives will become new and the nonbeliever will be punished. Very often that important truth is forgotten, it is pushed to the background and we are scared to think about it. But God wanted it to be known, he wanted it to be sent to the seven largest churches of the time, He wanted it to be written in a book and kept for the rest of time, He wanted it to be remembered through the ages. The Rose Window in Saint Chapel has dedicated one of the most famous windows in the world simply to the representation of God’s message to His people.