Window in Children's Chapel, Church of Our Lady, Lillington

Image: © A J Paxton Taken: 10 Sep 2023

This chapel was designed by the architect, Henry Fedeski, as a Mothers' & Babies' Chapel, with a doorway leading to the porch so that noisy babies could be taken discreetly out of the church. The stained glass, here as elsewhere in the building, is by Dom Charles Norris, a monk of Buckfast Abbey in Devon, where his work can also be seen. It is in the modern French tradition of dalle-de-verre; see Image On the church, see the listing at the Historic England site: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1402200?section=official-list-entry . The theme is a disturbing one for mothers and babies: the Instruments of the Passion, by which Christ was betrayed, mocked, tortured and killed. These were a popular theme of late medieval religious art and can be seen on wayside crosses in Catholic countries. The cross is surrounded by a purple band, the robe of mockery which the Roman soldiers placed on Jesus. Also to be seen are the crown of thorns, the INRI sign on the cross, mocking Christ as Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, the scourge with which the soldiers whipped him, the nails that attached him to the cross, the spear that pierced his side, and the pot of myrrh used by Joseph of Arimathea to anoint his body for burial. We are a long way here from 'prayers with bears', the toy ones at least. It does seem like a monkish comment on the pains of parenthood and the suffering that awaits children in life; the wise men, after all, brought myrrh as one of their gifts to the Christ child.

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