The Stained Glass Windows of St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin, New Zealand

The Rose window above the main entrance door up in the choir loft has a tracery of 132 pieces of coloured glass.

The window was supplied by Mayer and Co., Munich, in February 1887. The Rose window, a feature of the Gothic style, is so designed that the eight intersecting circles overlap to form the leaf pattern.

The window was a gift from Mr P. and Miss Murphy. The Octagonal window directly
above the main entrance door was likewise supplied by Mayer and Co., Munich.

The fourteen stained glass windows on the side walls are one of the Cathedral's many attractive features. The first seven windows were installed before the opening of the Cathedral in February May of the 1886. The remaining seven arrived in same year tracery, . In keeping with Mr Petre's style of architecture, each window has a different design in Oamaru stone which is further enhanced by the stained glass beautifully depicting Saints of the Church.

Six of the Saints depicted on the windows are Irish, and are indicative of the Irish influence among the clergy and laity of the time. The donors of the eighth window of St Rose of Lima and St Thomas Aquinas kept alive the Scottish influence with the request on their window: "Pray for Mary, Queen of Scots, and John and Rose Gartland and their family." Of the other Saints on the windows, there are English or connected with England, four Italian, one Spaniard, one French, one Polish and one South American.

The windows were made in the studios of Franz Mayer and Co., Munich. This firm has been working in stained glass from 1848 to the present day. According to Konrad Mayer (fourth generation), Franz Mayer had a school for crippled children. When their schooling finished about the age of fifteen, there were not job opportunities for these children. Franz Mayer founded his Art Studios to provide work for these handicapped children. It is said that at times as many as a hundred young people worked on church furnishings in his studios. Cathedral accounts for 1886 record that Bishop Moran paid five hundred and ten pounds for the fourteen stained windows from Munich.

The Franz Mayer and Co. firm state that the stained glass in the fourteen windows is genuine mouth-blown antic glass produced in Bavaria. The colouring of the glass is made by different metal oxides. After the artist has drawn his subject. It is transferred on to pieces of glass to match the drawing in detail and colour. There can be as many as four to five hundred pieces in each window. The glass is put into a furnace and the colours thoroughly burnt in. This process results in the colour not deteriorating, and they grow more mellow and beautiful with the lapse of time. With the sun shining through the windows, or with the Cathedral lit up, the stained windows are a joy to behold.

In describing the windows, the N.Z. Tablet (February 19, 1886) wrote: "Nothing more beautiful of the kind could be seen in any part of the world, and they may be reckoned among the chief works of art in the Colony."

	The first window on the south wall; Pray for the decrased relations and friends of Mrs Roche AD 1885. St Stanislas of Cracow, bishop and martyr. Born at Szcepanow, 1030; died at Cracow, 1079; canonised 1253; feast day 11 April. This Stanislas is greatly revered in Poland, but there is much uncertainty about the events which led to the violent death because of which he is venerated as a martyr. He was elected bishop of Cracow in 1072, and the story commonly told is that he came into collision with the vigorous King Boleslav II on account of the disorders of the king's private life; the bishop several times fearlessly rebuked his sovereign and finally excommunicated him, whereupon Boleslav himself attacked and murdered Stanislas while he was celebrating Mass. But the available evidence is variously interpreted by historians. St Margaret, virgin martyr. No date; feast day 20 July. Margaret (called Marina in the East) was one of the most popular saints in the later middle ages in the West, but there is no positive evidence that she existed.

	The second window on the south wall was one of the seven installeed in May 1886. The donor was Mrs Grant, who gave the window in memory of her relations. The St Coleman, Bishop, would seem to be St Colman of Lindisfarne, who died in 676 A.D. The Venerable Bede, although disapproving of Colman's obstinacy as to the Roman date of Easter, spoke in glowing terms of his simplicity of life and charity to the poor. St Finbarr is an Irish Saint who died in 633. He is venerated as founder of the City and the episcopal See of Cork. Perhaps Mrs Grant chose this window after consultation with Monsignor Coleman, who was in charge of Cathedral parish at that time and who belonged to the diocese of Cork before he came to work in the diocese of Dunedin.

	The third window on the south wall was the gift of the Dominican Sisters who came to Dunedin with Bishop Moran in 1871, and had been ardent supporters of the Bishop in his plan to build the Cathedral. The window contains full length figures of St Dominic and St Catherine of Siena. St Dominic found the Order of Preachers in 1215. St Catheine was a Dominican tertiary who lived at home. She was renowned for her peacemaking efforts between rival States, and it was she who persuaded Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome from Avignon. Along with St Teresa of Avila, she is honoured as a Doctor of the Church.

	The fourth window on the south wall was the gift of the pupils of the Christian Brothers' School established in Rattray Street in 1876. As Irish Christian Brothers, it was natural that they should choose St Columbanus, the most famous of the Irish missionaries in Europe in the sixth and seventh centuries. Founder of the great monastery of Luxeuil, he became a spiritual father of south-western France, Switzerland and north-western Italy. St Aloysius, a youth himself, would be chosen as the Patron of Youth, and perhaps also in compliment to the Jesuits who had come to Dunedin in 1877 and established St Aloysius' College at Wakari, a boys' boarding school.

	The Fifth window on the south wall; Pray for the Donor Pray for John Brennan St Patrick, missionary bishop. Born at Bannavem Taberniae, 386 (?); died at Saul in Down, 461 (?); feast day; 17 March. The evangeliser of the Irish was a Romano-Briton, born at an unidentified place near the west coast somewhere between the Clyde and the Severn estuary; his father, Calpurnius, was a civil official and deacon, and his grandfather was a priest. There were certainly Christians in Ireland before the coming of St Patrick (they had a bishop, Palladius), but no great impression had been made. It was Patrick who caused Christ's gospel to be welcomed far and wide in the north, the central parts, and the west, and brought an organised church into existence. St John, apostle and evangelist, called 'the Divine', i.e. the theologian. Died at Ephesus (?), c. 100; feast day; 27 December. A Galilean fisherman, and he and his brother St James the Greater, the sons of Zebedee, were called from mending their nets to follow Jesus Christ. Identified with the unnamed 'disciple whom Jesus loved', who leaned on his Master's breast at the Last Super; to whom Jesus on the cross confided the care of his mother; who ran before Peter to the tomb on the morning of the resurrection and, seeing it empty, believed; and who first recognised the risen Lord by the Sea of Tiberias.

	The sixth window on the south wall; the gift of the convent school children. Pray for the donors AD 1885. Pray for the Children of Mary

	The seventh window on the south wall; St Anne teaching the Blessed Virgin Mary

	The first window on the north wall; Erected by Patrick Murphy in memory of his parents and brothers. Pray for them all AD 1885. St Edward the Confessor - king, born at Islip c1004; died at Westminister 1066; Canonised 1161; Feast Day 13 October. Edward II was the king of the English, the father of Edward, his wife Edith,, sister of Duke Richard II of Normandy. For the Past 10 years Edward lived in that country, in 1041 he succeeded to the throne, four years later, married Edith, daughter of the ambitions and powerful Earl Godwin. The brief that Edward was a saint was supported by his general reputation for religious devotion and for generosity to the poor and infirm and a number of miracles. Edward was buried in the church of the abbey of Westminister. He is the only English saint whose bodily remains still rest in their medieval shrine. St Jane Frances de Chantal, foundress. Born at Dijon 1572; died at Moulins 1641; Canonised 1767; feast day 12 December.

	The second window on the north wall; Erected by Cornichius Bunburo in loving daughter Delia and son John of your remembrance of his wife Anne. Charity pray for their souls AD 1885.St Cornelius - Pope and martyr. Born in Rome; died at Civitavecchia, June 253; Feast day 16 September. After the martyrdom of St Fabian in 250 it was over a year before the Roman clergy and people were able to elect a bishop, Cornelius, in his place - a result of the continuance of persecution and of differences among Christians themselves. A party, led by the priest Novatian, claimed in effect that apostasy was an unforgivable sin, and that the church had no power to absolve and receive back people who had lapsed under persecution and then repented. Cornelius rejected this teaching, and Novation set up himself up as Bishop of Rome in opposition. His teaching were condemned by councils of bishop at Carthage and Rome. He died soon afterwards and is traditionally venerated as a martyr; he may have succumbed to hardships in exile, but later statements that he was beheaded are not supported by any historical evidence. St John, apostle and evangelist, called 'the Divine', in example, the Theologian. Died at Ephesus (?) Canonised 100, Feast day 27 December.

	The third window on the north wall; Erected by Mrs Anne Murphy in memory of her dear husband Michael Murphy. May he rest in Peace. Pray for her AD 1885. St Michael - Feast day 29 September. The festival of St Michael the Archangel on this date originated in the annual commemoration of the dedication, before the seventh century, of a church in his honour near Rome. From the beginning of Christian history there is evidence for the honour in which Michael was held, and he was also venerated by the Jews. The well-known passage in the Apocalypse (Rev. xii, 7-9) about the 'war in heaven' contributed to his being honoured in the West as the 'captain of the heavenly host' and protector of Christians in general and of soldiers in particular. St Anne, grandmother of Jesus Christ and mother of the Virgin Mary. Feast day 26 July for St Joachim and his wife St Anne. Nothing whatever is known about the parents of the Virgin Mary, to whom these names are traditionally given.

	The fourth window on the north wall; Erected in memory of William Poulewell by widow and children. Pray for them all AD 1885. St Augustin of Kent - missionary bishop. Died at Canterbury, c 605; feast day 27 May. In that year 596 St Gregory the Great sent a band of forty monks, led by this Augustine, to preach the gospel to the heathen English. They arrived in Kent in 597, and were well received by the local king, Ethelbert, who himself soon became a Christian, with many of his subjects. Augustine went to Arles to be consecrated archbishop of the English, and established his see at Canterbury, where he also founded the monastery of Saints Peter and Paul (afterwards called St Augustine's). St Cuthbert - Bishop, born circa 634; died on Farne, 687; feast day 20 March. In spite of lively claims made in the past on behalf of Ireland, it seems that St Cuthbert was, as his name suggests, a Northumbrian Englishman.

	The fifth window on the north wall; Erected by the members of the confraternity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Pray for them AD 1885. Sacred Heart of Jesus, who didst manifest to Saint Margaret Mary the desire of reigning in Christian families, we today wish to proclaim Thy most complete regal dominion over our own. We would live in future with thy life, we would cause to flourish in our midst those virtues to which thou hast promised peace here below, we would banish far from us the spirit of the world which thou hast cursed; and thou shalt reign over our minds in the simplicity of our faith, and over our hearts by the whole - hearted love with which they shall burn for Thee, the flame of which we shall keep alive by the frequent reception of thy divine Eucharist. St Mary, the Blessed Virgin. Principal feast day 15 August. The mother of Jesus was a Jewish maiden, called Miriam in Hebrew, traditionally of the family of King David; Nothing sure is known about her parentage or the place of her birth.

	The donor of this window was Hibernian Australasian Benefit Society. St Joseph's Cathedral Branch was established in 1873. St Lawrence O"Toole was the first Irish Bishop of Dublin and much of his life was overshadowed by politics adn conflict with Henry II, who forbade him to return to Ireland. He died near Rouen in 1180 A.D. St Bridget (450-523 A.D.) is the best known woman Saint of Ireland. The legends and folklore associated with her leave the impression of a strong attractive, compassionate woman. The lamp in her hand is one of her emblems.

	The seventh window on the north wall; Pray for Mary Queen of Scots and Thomas and Rose Gartland and family AD 1885 St Rose of Lima, recluse. Born at Lima, 1586; died there, 1617; canonised 1671; feast day 23 August. Isabel de Flores y del Oliva, known as Rose, was the first person in the Americas to be canonised as a saint; she was the daughter of Spanish parents in Peru. Rose worked hard to support them, by growing flowers and doing embroidery and other needlework. She firmly declined to consider marriage; from the age of twenty she was a Dominican teritary and lived in a summerhouse in the garden of her home. Here she passed long hours in prayer; her retiringness and the cruelty of the penances she inflicted on herself provoked the criticism of her family and friends, and her mystical experiences and the temptations she suffered became the subject of an ecclesiastical inquiry. Thomas Aquinas, theologian. Born at Roccasecca near Aquino, c. 1225; died at Fossanuova near Terracina, 1274; canonised 1323; feast day; 28 January. This great medieval doctor of the church - esteemed by many the greatest.