These panels are from the stained glass windows designed by a former Vatican artist in 1951 for the newly built Viatorian Province Center in Arlington Heights. Peter Recker, a German artist, was commissioned by the Conrad Schmitt Studios in Milwaukee to create the stained glass imagery.
Recker designed the windows to reflect the creation of the world, as described in the Book of Genesis. Consequently, they go from showing light and darkness, swirling water, and the hand of God; to the sun, moon, stars and the planets; as well as birds and fish, and a lamb, symbolizing vegetation and animals.
The windows are particularly brilliant on sun splashed mornings, with sun beams bursting through the stained glass and casting their colorful glow into the chapel’s sanctuary. They seem to confirm, for all those who enter the chapel, the magnificence of God’s handiwork and creation.
Province Center Chapel