This American made window memorializing Mary Martha Taylor depicts Mary and her sister Martha serving supper to Jesus six days before Passover and not long after he raised their brother Lazarus from the dead as told in the Gospel of John.  It was the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead that really alarmed the Pharisees and the Sadducees, two of the four influential Jewish sects at the time, and led to Jesus being sentenced to death on the cross. Both felt threatened by the teachings and popularity of Jesus.  The name Mary Martha Taylor who lived from 1864 to 1943, when this clerestory window by Arthur & Ethel B. Norris of New Rochelle was installed, tells us why this Biblical story was chosen to memorialize her. 

Christ, Mary and Martha is directly above the Consider the Lilies window that depicts an earlier event in the known life of Jesus but also foreshadows the Crucifixion and Resurrection. 

Mary, who anointed the feet of Christ, is seen kneeling in front of Martha, who served the supper, is holding a dish and cloth in the right lancet. Jesus, in the left lancet, is seated with food on the table next to him. The soft browns and shades of gold in Mary’s robe balance the deep blue and green of Martha’s garments, the shades of blue of the tablecloth and sky with its grey clouds, and the intense red of Jesus’ robe and the red glass at the peak of the window and below the figures. Although the window looks modern it is these brilliant colors and the Gothic decorations in the borders that render it traditional in concept. Other interesting details that connect the lancets are the black and white checkerboard tile floor, the details in the border design, the arched banisters behind the figures, and the grey clouds in the sky.

Karen Royce