The History of Emmanuel Church

 WD01 St. Paul

DESCRIPTION:

St. Paul stands facing left garbed in a purple and aqua cloak over a white and gold tunic, barefoot on a ground of leaves and flowers. His left hand grasps the hilt of a sword resting on the ground while his right hand holds an open book. Behind his head is a golden halo with “SANCTUS PAULUS" around. He stands in front of a stylized design in blue that depicts a cross within a double ring inside a stylized star with seven rounded points. Six of the intersections of the star with the outer ring are marked by rounded yellow triangle.

 

Beneath his feet the inscription:  HIS CHILDREN RISE UP (completed in the St. Peter window to the right with AND CALL HIM BLESSED, refering to Moses in the middle of the tryptich, I presume).

 

In the predella below, within a blue diamond is depicted a pelican feeding her brood of three young from the meat of her breast.  In each corner of the panel, just outside the diamond frame are semicircles of maroon and gold each containing a fleur-de-lis flanked left and right by stylizd mushroom shapes.

 

Below that is the inscription:  BORN IN KENT CO MARYLAND SEPER 21ST AD 1794

 

ICONOLOGY:

The seven-round-pointed star above St. Paul's head represents the seven churches of Asia minor that count Paul as their founder.

In his left hand, St Paul holds a sword, his heraldic symbol, which commemorates his martyrdom by beheading. 

The open book in his right hand symbolizes his authorship of epistles.

The mother pelican with her fledglings is an ancient symbol for Christ,  because the pelican was believed to feed its young with its own blood pecked from her breast, a Eucharistic metaphor.

The fleur-de-lis and mushrooms in the predella are  probably just decorative.