The early Church assigned allegorical symbols to each Evangelist.  These symbols (rather than portraits) are used in the windows to emphasize that God's ability to reveal himself through the Gospels, and their authority within the canon of Scripture, reach beyond the Evangelists' personal identities and circumstances, to every succeeding place and time.  The symbols themselves -- a human, a lion, an ox, and an eagle correspond to the four faces on each of the four "living creatures" (or cherubim), which surround the throne of God."

Mark opens with John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness and so is shown as a lion, an animal of the desert.  Many modern scholars believe Mark was the first Gospel to be written, and as the lion may also be seen as a sign of royalty, it reflects Mark's possible preeminence in the development of the Gospels.

[Jesus said} "Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priest, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles:  And the shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him and the third day he shall rise again."  Mark 10:33-34

Like Stars Appearing:  The Story of the Stained Glass Windows of St. George's Episcopal Church, Dayton, Ohio
copyright 2004 by Anne E. Rowland.  All rights reserved.
Stained Glass Windows copyright 2000 by St. George's Episcopal Church, crafted by Willet Stained Glass.