Saint Peter's Episcopal Church, "The Wise Virgins and Foolish Virgins" Stained Glass Lancet Windows

The Wise and Foolish Virgins, designed for Saint Peter’s Episcopalian Church in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, is the only example of Violet Oakley’s work in ecclesiastical stained glass to be preserved with its original cartoon. A rich blend of Christian iconography, art historical allusions, and personal symbolism, it represents Oakley’s mastery of the medium as a form of personal expression. The Wise and Foolish Virgins also establish the roles of George and Gertrude Woodward as Oakley’s patrons soon after she relocated to Cogslea, a Woodward property she leased with Jessie Willcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green, and Henrietta Cozens in 1906.

Designed by Frank Furness and G. W. & W. D. Hewitt in the English Gothic style, Saint Peter’s was built in 1873 on a lot donated by Gertrude’s father, Henry Howard Houston, manager of the northwest suburban line of the Pennsylvania Railroad and real estate developer of “Wissahickon Heights,” later known as Chestnut Hill. Gertrude Houston Woodward commissioned Oakley to design a double-lancet window in 1908 as a memorial to her aunt, Miss Mary Anna Bonnell, who was a member of the congregation. The parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13) was appropriate for an unmarried woman and a subject often depicted in stained glass in Victorian Anglican churches. Oakley references the earlier medieval iconographic tradition of flanking the portals of Gothic cathedrals with jamb figures of the wise and foolish virgins. In the background of the left lancet window, Oakley created a French medieval town under a starry sky studded with glass jewels. Barely visible, the small featureless figures of the foolish virgins cluster in the street as an ominous orange comet above foreshadows their misfortune. Continuing into the right lancet window, the elevated frontal plane depicts monumental figures of the five wise virgins carrying their oil lamps up to an open cathedral door. Although white rose bushes grow in the corners of the pavement, it is incongruously strewn with three red roses, emblematic of Oakley, Smith, and Green who were known as the “Red Rose Girls” from their residence at the Red Rose estate in Villanova from 1902 to 1906. The inscription above the cathedral entrance: “Oh enter ye into his gates with thanksgiving and unto his courts with praise” (Psalm 100:4) suggests gratitude to the Woodwards for providing them with sanctuary by building Cogslea, an interpretation reinforced by the jamb figures of a couple to the left of the door who appear to be watching the wise virgins approach. Oakley’s intricate composition was executed by Nicola d’Ascenzo in Philadelphia.

The Wise and Foolish Virgins stained glass windows remained in the church at 6000 Wayne Avenue until 2009, when the historic building was abandoned. At that time Oakley’s windows were removed and restored by Beyer Stained Glass studios in Germantown before they were acquired by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, who owned Oakley’s original cartoons.