Byzantine Lozenge

A “Byzantine lozenge” sounds like a curious cough drop of doubtful medicinal value. Logos, in modern times, generally refer to corporate emblems. But in St. Francis de Sales Church, the terms lozenge and Logos have different meanings, related to the geometric patterns that you see on the crucifix and baldachin, around the tabernacle, on the steps to the original altar, in the border of the sanctuary floor, in windows, and elsewhere – all based on the Byzantine art and symbolism (from the Greek-speaking part of the Eastern Roman Empire 500 to 1450 AD)  that inspired its church decorations back in 1911.

First, what is a lozenge? In art, it’s a fancy word for a diamond shape or a tilted square. Art historians debate its significance. A typical source notes that “…its exact meaning is unclear, but its four corners may be an allusion to the classical concept of the tetragonus mundus (four square world) and its four elements earth, fire, water and air, four seasons etc., or the universe (created on the fourth day according to the Christian Bible, Genesis 1:14-19).” A symbol dictionary suggests that a diamond shape – “the perfection of crystal” — represents “absolute purity and spirituality…In the Renaissance…it was a symbol of courage and strength of character…”

More relevant, are scholarly sources stating “We know that the lozenge was a Christian symbol in early times. It is found on early Christian lamps, perhaps denoting The Light of the World, and is often interchangeable with the cross in Byzantine work.” Now we’re getting somewhere. The diamond symbol represented a cross in Byzantine art (imagine perpendicular lines drawn through the middle). Christ was crucified on a cross, and based on where the shape appears (often adorning specific manuscript pages), “…it can be deduced with confidence that the lozenge stands for the second person of the Trinity, the Logos.”

What is the Logos? The Greek word, meaning “Word” or “Reason,” “is a name or title of Jesus Christ, derived from the prologue to the Gospel of John ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’” So, in Byzantine tradition, the diamond shape specifically represents the idea that Jesus on the Cross is the Word of God Made Flesh — and the geometric figure is one more contribution to the “field guide to crosses” in our church. The pattern becomes particularly significant, since it appears so many times in our sanctuary!

The symbol has a special association with Saint John the Evangelist, who wrote the book of the Gospel that starts “In the beginning was the Word…” So, Saint John the Evangelist, who is already present in so many places in our church (at the foot of the cross; in the Last Supper; in the Evangelist medallions at the base of the dome; among the Apostle insignias; in two of the round windows and several of the long ones; and as the Eagle bookrest in the high pulpit), is here referenced in one more form.

It all makes sense, if you think about it, that our church should be filled with book-related motifs and different crosses, since one of the many works of our Patron Saint, who is one of the Doctors of the Church, is a book about devotion to the Cross! The literary association is a happy coincidence for a parish neighborhood that, through the years, has grown up close to so many educational institutions.

Color OUR Collections! From February 3 to 7, 2020, libraries, archives, and other cultural institutions around the world are sharing free coloring sheets and books online based on materials in their collections. Last year, our SFDS parish history archives contributed a selection of stained-glass windows and other church details to color; this year, we feature 1920s parish bulletin advertising art to click and print. Check out all the offerings – from SFDS to Drexel University to the Vatican Libraries and beyond — at ColorOurCollections.org

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The Passing of Saint Francis de Sales

The long stained-glass window on the 47th Street side of our church, showing the final moments of our patron St. Francis de Sales (by Nicola D’Ascenzo in 1911), features a detail of a small green plant on the mantel as a reminder of his connection to God through the natural world.

An 1871 biography notes that after years of defending the Faith, Francis, Bishop of Geneva, “began to feel worn and weary” at age 55 (old in the 1600s), and dreamed of retiring “to a quiet spot on the Lake of Annecy,”  (Duchy of Savoy; part of France today) to spend his final years writing books, close to nature. Francis was in poor health: “his legs swelled painfully, so that he could scarcely walk, and they were also covered with sores;” and his chest pains were “distressing.”

In May 1622, Pope Gregory XV, nonetheless, ordered him to travel to Turin (Savoy then; Italy today) to settle a religious dispute. There, after Francis fainted in the church, he stayed on to recover, returning to Annecy in August, after he heard that crops at home had failed, and people were suffering. Francis decided “I will sell my mitre and crosier (hat and staff), and my garments themselves, to relieve my poor people.” He got rid of everything he could – including a valuable diamond ring he had just received from the princess in Turin. Upon hearing this, some of his flock bought it back for him, then he sold it again: “This happened several times, till it became a popular saying that it was the beggars’ ring rather than the Bishop’s.”

Francis made one final journey that November. The Duke of Savoy planned to meet French King Louis XIII at Avignon and accompany him on a royal tour. The Duke’s daughter-in-law, the Princess of Piedmont, wanted to bring the Bishop, who was her Grand Almoner (the most important member of the Church in the royal court), as part of her entourage. Unable to refuse, Bishop Francis wearily acknowledged “we must go where God calls us, as long as we can move at all…” Hoping to petition the King for aid for his diocese, he prepared to travel, knowing he probably would not return.

The plant shown in our window signals the humble surroundings at his final stop in Lyon, where “the Bishop avoided all Court entertainments and gatherings, save such as were a part of his duty…and refused all invitations…preferring to occupy a little apartment in the gardener’s house belonging to the Visitation Convent…The Sisters were distressed at their Founder being so unsuitably lodged,” but Francis insisted that he preferred the simple, natural setting.

Though frail, he was still busy: “Madame de Chantal (with whom he had co-founded the Visitation Order in 1601), who had not seen him for more than three years…came to Lyons to see her beloved Spiritual Father again…Persons of every class and age poured in upon him to gather up precious words of instruction and guidance, and the gardener’s little cottage was besieged with visitors from the town and from the members of both Courts…”

A few days after Francis celebrated Christmas Midnight Mass for the Visitation Sisters in Lyon, and the Superior remarked that the sermon was so inspired that “I could have fancied that I saw the Angel Gabriel standing beside you....,” Francis had a seizure and was carried to his bed in the gardener’s house. He received medical treatments of the day: “blisters applied to the head, hot irons, and even cauterizations to the spine...” but nothing helped, and the priests administered Last Rites.

Madame de Chantal was at the convent in Grenoble, saying her prayers, “when she distinctly heard a voice say ‘He is no more.’” She did not understand until later what this meant: it was at that moment, back in Lyon, at about eight in the evening on the Feast of the Holy Innocents (Dec. 28), that Saint Francis de Sales died. He was buried, as was his desire, at the Church of the Visitation in Annecy on January 24.

 

Saint Francis de Sales

The Feast Day of Our Patron SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES is January 24.

Born in 1567, Francis de Sales grew up to become an inspirational preacher; a powerful writer; a friend of the poor; and a saint who, like his model, Saint Francis of Assisi, promoted a simple and devout life. Some of his story was told by stained glass artist Nicola D’Ascenzo in the lower half of our long windows. On the St. Joseph side of the church, starting at the left, young Francis learns the catechism from his mother in Savoy (part of France today). He receives his First Holy Communion in the middle window, then his father agrees to let him take Holy Orders in 1593. Across the aisle, on the Saint Mary side of the church, Saint Francis de Sales is a priest, preaching a mission at Annemasse in 1597. In the middle window he has become a bishop, co-founding the order of the Visitation, an order of nuns, with St. Jane Chantal in 1610. The right-hand window depicts his deathbed in 1622. What happened in the spaces between the windows?  Francis was appointed Bishop of Geneva in 1602, but resided in nearby Annecy, Savoy, because Geneva was under Protestant control. There, he worked with gentle firmness to keep the Catholic faith alive in his diocese. He is known for sliding written sermons under the doors of the faithful who could not, by law, attend mass — which is how he became The Patron Saint of Journalists. He is also patron saint of the deaf, based on a miracle he performed.