Barat College artifact installed at Woodlands Academy

by John Phillips, Jr., President, Associated Crafts

St. Madeleine Sophie Barat (click to enlarge)

The words engraved on the plaque next to the stained glass window capture the heart of the image, "For the sake of one child, I would have founded the Society of the Sacred Heart".

Her hand resting gently on the head of a girl, the nun's saintly expression reflects only care and concern for her young charge.

Previously part of the Old Main building at the former Barat College, the St. Madeleine Sophie Barat window has been installed in the library at Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart in Lake Forest.

"Besides being a beautiful piece of art, this ties us to our past," said Woodlands Head of School Gerald Grossman. "It's a visual representation of the woman who founded our society over 200 hundred years ago."

With a mission to educate girls, Barat, a French nun, founded the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1800. The organization has grown into an international network of schools including the all-girls high school campus in Lake Forest. Barat was declared a saint by Pope Pius X in 1925.

"The window was designed by Emil Frie in Munich, Germany in the early 1920s. It was one of three he created for Barat College. The window restoration and installation [performed by Associated Crafts] was paid for by the Barat Education Foundation, and given to the high school as a gift," Grossman said.

"This serves as a tangible presence of Barat that our girls have only heard about in the abstract," he said. "Now they have something that they can see and touch."

John Phillips, Jr. is president of Associated Crafts, one of the nation's premier full-service stained-glass studios. For more information, including a free copy of the informative manual, "Preserving Your Stained Glass Windows: A Resource Guide for Your Stained Glass Project", visit www.AssociatedCrafts.com,(a.k.a. www.Church-Stained-Glass-Windows.com). Associated Crafts is a full-service studio providing a full range of services including new windows, on-site repair, in-studio repair, installation of protective coverings, frame repair, and reselling of used windows.