Stig Memorial Window at St. James Episcopal Church, West Dundee, Illinois
This leaded stained glass window was created as a memorial to Stig P. Orum and was installed in St. James Episcopal Church at Washington & North Sixth Streets in West Dundee, Illinois, in April of 1992. It is described as the Nave Window depicting “The Saints of God." It was created by Willet Stained Glass Studios, Inc, from 10 East Moreland Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This window was paid for and given by the Orum Family: Christa, Peter, and Irma.
This window was dedicated and blessed in memory of Stig P. Orum, April, 26, 1992. This was the Second Sunday of Easter and the dedication was led by The Right Reverend Frank T. Griswold, III, The Bishop of Chicago, Presiding with The Very Reverend Chester D.F. Boynton, assisting. The window’s theme was chosen as the parish and the family felt it demonstrated the spirit of Stig, and also because he had enjoyed dressing up as the saint slain by the fierce wild beast, and ultimately at his end, he himself was slain by a figurative beast of a vehicle.
At the top of the window, it says "I Sing a song of the Saints of God.” Across the sides it says "Ignatius of Antioch" and at the bottom it says "One was slain by a fierce wild beast." These words come from the hymn traditionally sung in celebration of All Saints’ Day; Hymn 293 in the 1982 Hymnal of the Episcopal Church. Author of the text is Lesbia Scott, born in 1898 and the tune was written by John Henry Hopkins (1861 – 1945).
St. Ignatius of Antioch was the third bishop of Antioch and considered an apostolic Father because he heard the Apostle John preach. He is thought to have been ordained by St. Peter. About 110 A.D. he was sentenced to a martyr's death in the arena by the Emperor Trajan. He refused to remain silent in the face of an order by the Emperor to worship their pagan gods under penalty of death. He died a soldier of Christ. On the journey to Rome and his martyrdom he wrote seven pastoral letters. The authenticity of the letters is universally accepted by Catholic and Protestant scholars.
I am writing to all the Churches and I enjoin all, that I am dying willingly for God's sake, if only you do not prevent it. I beg of you, do not do me an untimely kindness. Allow me to be eaten by the beasts, which are my way of reaching to God. I am God's wheat, and I am to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts, so that I may become the pure bread of Christ.
I Sing a Song of the Saints of God
I sing a song of the saints of God,
patient and brave and true,
who toiled and fought and lived and died
for the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
and one was a shepherdess on the green:
they were all of them saints of God, and I mean,
God helping, to be one too.
They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
and God’s love made them strong;
and they followed the right, for Jesus’ sake,
the whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
and one was slain by a fierce wild beast:
and there’s not any reason, no, not the least,
why I shouldn’t be one too.
They lived not only in ages past;
there are hundreds of thousands still;
the world is bright with the joyous saints
who love to do Jesus’ will.
You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea,
in church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea;
for the saints of God are just folk like me,
and I mean to be one too.