Located in the choir loft above the entrance to Most Holy Trinity Church, this large window depicts Saint Cecilia, patron saint of music and musicians, playing the organ. Figures in the left panel represent guardian angels and celestial music. Pictured in the right panel are Pope Gregory X (the patron saint of church art and the Gregorian chant) and King David (the Old Testament psalmist). Cecilia was an early Christian girl of Rome who had taken a vow of chastity to show her love of God. When her father gave her in marriage to the young patrician Valerian, she prayed for help by "singing to God in her heart." Her new husband was baptized into Cecilia's faith after seeing the guardian angel watching over her and hearing heavenly music in the bridal chamber. Both were later martyred for their faith. Saint Cecilia's Day on November 22 is celebrated with music festivals in many countries. Depictions of the saint in art often show her seated at an organ, as in this window. To see another window based upon the same story, visit the Window of the Month for July 1999.
Most Holy Trinity Church was built in 1916. Its windows, added in 1920, were made by the Munich Studio, founded at Chicago in 1903 by German immigrant Max Guler, a painter from Munich. Guler and his staff of German immigrant painters and craftsmen specialized in so-called "Munich" style windows, using strong contrasts of light and shade, rich ornamentation and much architectural detail.
Most Holy Trinity Church was registered in the Michigan Stained Glass Census by Joyce Epkey of Fowler (MSGC 97.0039).
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