The Three Holy Women at the Tomb of Christ, window by Charles E. Kempe, 1905

The Holy Women at the Tomb, often called The Three Marias, tells of the first Easter morning when the women were the first to discover that Jesus had been raised from the dead. The story differs in all four gospels (Matthew 28:1-8, Mark 16:1-8, Luke 24:1-11, and John 20:1-9).

Matthew’s account tells the basic story: “About daybreak on the first day of the week, when the sabbath was over, Mary of Magdala and the other Mary came to look at the grave. Suddenly there was a violent earthquake; an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone, and sat down on it. His face shone like lightning; his garments were white as snow. …“The angel spoke to the women: ‘You’, he said, ‘have nothing to fear. I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; he has been raised, as he said he would be.’” [Latin: Non est hic. surrexit=He is not here. He has been raised.]

Mark’s gospel identifies the women as Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James, and Salome and mentions that they had brought “aromatic oils, intending to go and anoint him.” And Mark says the messenger was a “young man … wearing a white robe.” In Luke’s version, there were “two men in dazzling garments” at the tomb, and the women were Mary of Magdala, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. John wrote that Mary of Magdala came alone, then ran to get two of the apostles, and later, after they had gone home, she saw two angels in white in the tomb, and then Jesus himself.

The scene in this window definitely shows two angels, not simply young men, in white. In art, an angel holding a sceptre was usually meant to be Gabriel, and Mary Magdalene is usually depicted with a jar of ointment and long hair (as the woman at the lower left is depicted). Sometimes the women at the tomb were called myrrhophores or bearers of myrrh, a perfume used in embalming.

Charles Eamer Kempe got started in his field by being a painter of walls, ceilings and woodwork of churches in the 1860's. The style then in vogue reflected a resurgence of interest in gothic style and a return to high church practices. Kempe's training served him well when he started his own stained glass company in 1868.

Kempe perfected the use of silver stain on white (clear) glass, which leaves a yellow tint. Depending on the amount of stain used, the shade of yellow could be delicate or deep. His greatest stylistic influences were the stained glass of Northern Germany and Flanders from the 16th century. He took many trips to Europe, often taking the Kempe company artists with him, to study the art there.

This window was given to St. John’s by Schuyler Merritt in memory of his mother, Maria Shaw Merritt (1821-1902). It was commissioned from the Kempe Studios in London on 14 January 1905 (Commission #1260, which commission also included a window in memory of his father, Matthew Franklin Merritt) and was designed by Ernest Anson-Dyer, who later left Kempe’s to become a film animator for World War I propaganda cartoons. The Kempe insignia, a sheaf of wheat, can be seen at the left of the base of the canopy; this symbol was used from 1895 until Kempe’s death in 1907.

Information about the work of Charles Eamer Kempe is from Master of Glass by Margaret Stavridi (Hatfield Herts UK, John Taylor Books, 1988, for the Kempe Society) and from Philip Collins, Honorary Secretary of the Kempe Society in Liverpool.