The Xaverian values of humility, trust, compassion, simplicity and zeal are on display as part of a new set of banners that hang in Xavier High School’s dining hall.  

The new banners, with words written in white on a black background, replace older blue felt banners. Also shown on the new banners, unlike the previous ones, are the stained-glass windows that are such a part of Xaverian history.

“The windows were originally in the Xaverian house of formation (novitiate) in Torhout, Belgium,” said Brother Philip Revell, who helped lead the project to replace the old banners that will now hang in a stairwell heading to the second floor. “When the house closed, they were taken out and put in storage. When the Brothers rebuilt the community chapel at the house/school in Bruges, the windows were used to make a wall of windows on one side of the chapel where they would get natural light from the courtyard.”

Details of each window are underneath the pictures of them next to the statue of St. Joseph outside the dining hall. They are all connected with the story of the early years of the congregation.

Stained glass windows in churches and chapels have a long history. Early on, they served as a way to teach people who did not have access to Bible stories in written form or could not read. They told a story, just as the stained-glass windows of the Xaverian Brothers do.

By Jeff Otterbein