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Home > Building > Architecture > Nave
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Entering the nave, visitors pass under the oak gallery supporting
the Flentrop organ. In niches flanking the doors to the narthex
are stone statues of Knowledge and Piety, embodying the University’s
motto, “Eruditio et Religio.”
The nave seats about 1,600 people and is 73 feet high on the
inside. Its ceiling consists of repeating arches, which meet at
carved bosses. Above the north and south aisles are the triforia
— arcaded passageways running the length of the nave below
the clerestory (the windowed upper area of the nave).
The center aisle provides a good view of the nave’s stained-glass
windows. The backgrounds of the windows in the nave alternate
between ruby and blue, which blend in certain lights to give the
nave a violet glow. The windows in the clerestory depict stories
from the Old Testament, beginning with Adam and the story of creation,
on the south side, closest to the narthex, and ending with the
Maccabees, opposite Adam. In the center panel of each window is
the main character (or characters) whose story is told in the
surrounding panels. Each of the lancets is approximately 20 feet
tall, with the top quatrefoil almost five feet tall.
The lower-level windows, or the medallion windows, tell stories
from the New Testament, beginning with the stories of Mary and
Elizabeth (under the Adam window) and ending with the Revelation
to St. John on the Isle of Patmos. In the transepts are two large
“saints windows,” whose figures include Mary, Joseph,
and the archangels Gabriel, Raphael, Michael, and Uriel.
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