Plate-class window Image of Nativity from Eastport church gains national exposure

It is an unexpected gift for an unassuming church.

One of five stained-glass windows depicting the birth of Jesus that are part of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Eastport is being used by the United States Historical Society as the design for its 2002 annual stained-glass and pewter Christmas plate.

That puts the white-frame church in the company of the Washington Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York, and Roman Catholic cathedrals in cities such as New Orleans, San Francisco and Los Angeles, said the society’s Robert Kline.

The society has sold the plates featuring Nativity windows for about 25 years, he said. It is a private, nonprofit organization that publishes books and reproduces objects of historical significance. The 10-inch plate with a polished pewter rim and titled “The Prince of Peace” costs $135.

The Rev. Paul Sullivan, a Jesuit who has been at St. Joseph’s almost 12 years, said parishioners were proud to have the window chosen by the society.

The Nativity window chosen is one of five that were installed in the 1920s to illustrate the life of Jesus.

Although no documentation concerning their production survives, according to Sullivan it appears that about 20 windows were bought as a set, most likely from a stained-glass studio in Boston. They are considered to be in the Germanic tradition.

Nativity windows are rare in Maine, according to Fred Tannenbaum, owner of Northern Lights Studio and Ecclesiastical Glass in Canaan. He’s not sure why. He said few Maine churches have windows depicting Jesus as an infant or child, although windows showing him visiting the temple as a teenager are more common.

He inspected St. Joseph’s windows in 2000.

The Nativity series includes the Annunciation, baby Jesus in the manger, the visit of the three kings, the presentation of Jesus at the temple, and Jesus’ flight to Egypt with his parents.

The historical society chose to use the window as a design for a plate nearly seven years after Sullivan sent the organization a photograph of it and suggested it be used.

Kline said the window itself and the arrangement of the figures in it are more important than where the churches are located. The society chooses windows that can be fit into the round shape of the plate without too much manipulation.

The authentic, kiln-fired stained glass is handcrafted in a medieval tradition using a palette of 16 colors that will never fade. Each stained-glass round is fitted into a lead-free pewter rim.

St. Joseph’s receives a portion of the proceeds from each plate sold to parishioners or through parish contacts. The society also gives a donation to Pax Christi, a worldwide organization of Catholics that advocates for peace.

The society includes information about St. Joseph Parish written by Sullivan, who stresses that Eastport is a place where “nobody is anonymous.”

“I can give the Eucharist to everyone by name during all but the summer months,” Sullivan writes. “It also means every funeral is the burial of a friend.”

The roots of Roman Catholicism Down East go back to the early 17th century. The first Roman Catholic Mass in what is now New England probably was celebrated on nearby St. Croix Island.

By 1789, Moose Island, later Eastport, was home to 22 families.

Its proximity to Pleasant Point, the land set aside for the Passamaquoddy people in a 1794 treaty, linked the religious life of the two communities for two centuries. Over the years, the priest who served St. Joseph Parish also often served the American Indian communicants at St. Ann’s, a few miles from Eastport.

The first Mass was held in the unfinished 50-by-32-foot church in Eastport in 1829, but it was not dedicated until 1835. The parish was on shaky financial ground from the start – for years after its dedication, St. Joseph’s owed a local carpenter $1,100 for construction of the church and rectory.

Just 25 years after the dedication, the parish decided to build a new church on the same site and the old chapel was moved across the street. Later, it was turned around on the lot and became a home. In 1963, the building returned to church ownership and now is the parish hall and religious education center.

The cost of the church that still stands was $10,000. It was dedicated May 10, 1874, and 14 years later was expanded and renovated under leadership of the Rev. John O’Dowd.

When O’Dowd arrived in 1882, the Eastport area was an industrious community with 1,500 Catholics. The stained-glass windows depicting the life of Jesus were installed between 1922 and 1925. Paintings depicting the Stations of the Cross were hung in 1925 and remain in the church.

Named one of six pilgrimage churches in the state for the Jubilee in 2000, St. Joseph’s renovated its interior, restoring the sanctuary to its 19th century appearance. The color scheme reflects the earlier use of shades of green, gold and red in the church and emphasizes the warmth and color of the windows, according to Sullivan.

The priest, who is leaving the parish in 2003, will be able to have the image of the Nativity window with him no matter where he goes, even if it’s just on a plate.