The "A Treasured Journey: A Collection Of Artifacts From St. James Episcopal Church - Part II" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Walking through the exhibit of relics from St. James Episcopal Church in Lancaster which are on display at the Lancaster Historical Society which is located at 230 North President Ave. in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  My story yesterday told about a beautiful painting of "Madonna and Child" which I had a chance to visit.  Today will give you a look at four more pieces of artwork and the history behind each of them.  Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

This marble font was presented to St. James Church in 1825 by Sarah Yeates.   Sarah was the daughter of James Burd and his wife Sarah Shippen and the granddaughter of Edward Shippen and Sarah Plumley.  Sarah married Jasper Years on December 30, 1767.  They lived on South Queen Street in the city of Lancaster.  The house still stands today.  They had ten children, five of whom died in infancy.  Jasper Yeates was a prominent lawyer in Lancaster before the Revolutionary War.  He was an ardent patriot who eventually served as a delegate to the 1787 convention which ratified the Federal Constitution.  He was Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1791 to his death in 1817.  The Yeates family was active in St. James with Jasper serving as church warden before and after the Revolution.  This marble font was given to the church by Sarah after the death of her husband.

This is a portrait of the Rev. Samuel Bowman who was rector of St. James from 1827 to 1861.  It is an oil on canvas.    Samuel was a man of vision who oversaw the successful establishment of many institutions in Lancaster including:  Bishop Bowman Church House, Franklin and Marshall College, St. James Orphan Asylum, St. John's Episcopal Church and the Yeates School.  In 1858 he was made assistant bishop of the diocese of Pennsylvania, but continued to be rector of St. James.  His grave is in the churchyard near those of his two wives. 

The Rev. Samuel Bowman's linen preaching bands and velvet sermon case are pictured here.  In photo above he is wearing a type of formal neckwear worn by the clergy called preaching bands or preaching tabs.  The bands consist of two rectangular pieces of cloth which are usually white and tied at the neck.

St. James on the Camino de Santiago which is an oil on canvas by Freiman Stoltzfus was  painted in 2019.  This painting of St. James is an intentionally anachronistic rendering of the early Christian saint and martyr.  James was one of the first disciples of Jesus and his presence with Jesus is spoken about in many places in the gospels.  Here James is imagined by the Artis as walking the famous Camino, or Pilgrim's Way along the northern coast of Spain to Santiago de Compostela, the cathedral shrine and city dedicated to him in the Middle Ages.  James was known as the patron saint of pilgrims.  The painting merges the angels in the apse of St. James Church with the sun and stars as a mystical evocation of the figure.  Evident are the emblems of the saint; his staff and the scallop shell are universal signs of pilgrims.  

This is a photograph I took a few years ago which you can compare with the above photograph to see the apse of St. James Church as it appears today.

This final painting is from the exhibit at the Historical Society.  I was not able to determine the artist of this beautiful painting.  It also shows the beautiful apse of St. James Episcopal Church.