Shanghai Journal

Stained glass windows for a Chinese Cathedral

Father Thomas Lucas SJ teaches art history at the University of San Francisco and creates art-glass windows that grace several churches and chapels in the United States. In February 2002 he flew to Shanghai, China to help install the first 56 stained glass panels in the windows of Xujahui Cathedral. The animating spirit behind the ambitious project is Bishop Aloysius Jin, the Jesuit bishop of Shanghai who learned patience during more than 20 years he was imprisoned for his faith. He met Fr. Lucas in San Francisco and then invited him to see the cathedral and serve as a consultant. Lucas was initially reluctant because he did not want to restore a French Gothic cathedral to the splendor of its colonial past. Bishop Jin understood the vision of a new creative effort that sought to unite the Christian heritage embodied in the stones of the Cathedral with Chinese culture embodied in the paper-cutting folk art tradition and stylistic elements like background tracery based on Chinese window grills.

Shanghai artist Teresa Wo Ye is the principal artist and project coordinator. Three Chinese nuns, Sisters Wu, Li, and Han, are fabricating the panels, using a specialized glass kiln that was imported from the United States.