Nave

Photo of nave decorated for the Christmas holiday.

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.

You can learn more these parts of the Chapel by clicking on the corresponding image: