THE STAINED GLASS OF WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL

It was clear and sunny the day we visited the Washington National Cathedral, so the sun shining through the stained glass windows created a kaleidoscope of colors on the massive pillars.

The cathedral is built in the shape of a cross and as you reach the point where the nave meets the two transept arms you normally have a great view of the cathedral's three beautiful rose windows. However during our visit two of the windows were covered with scaffolding so the only rose window visible was the Church Triumphant window in the south transept.

The Space Window commemorates the Apollo 11 mission to the moon and holds a piece of moon rock brought back by its crew. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins delivered the seven-gram sample from the lunar Sea of Tranquility.

The clerestory or upper-level stained glass windows were designed by Rowan LeCompte. He was first commissioned for a stained glass window in the cathedral at the amazing age of sixteen! Check out the video interview with Mr. LeCompte here as he tells the story and shows how he and his partner made their final window for the cathedral.

War and Peace is the title of this brilliant stained glass window located in the Woodrow Wilson Bay. There are many images symbolizing events in the life of the president who is buried in the cathedral.

On December 8, 1891, in the Washington DC home of Charles C. Glover, a group of men met and decided to build the Washington Cathedral. This event is commemorated in these Glover Bay windows.

Scenes depicting the lush lands explored in the 1803 Lewis and Clark expedition make up these two windows. The sun shining through the colorful glass made the stone of the window bays brilliant with color.

These windows, located in the National Cathedral Association Bay, portray some of the roles of Christian women as "life-givers, healers, purifiers, and teachers".

Above the Abraham Lincoln Bay is this beautiful abstract-designed window titled The Agony of Civil War.

The last window is a brilliantly-colored clerestory window above the Bettelheim Bay...

For more information visit www.nationalcathedral.org.

All photos in this blog post were taken by my husband and me during our visit in September, 2013.