This stained glass window was erected in 1901 and designed by Charles Eamer Kempe (1837-1907) who was a Sussex artist. He was responsible for many stained glass windows across the country but particularly in the south-east. He signed his work by including a small wheatsheaf in the design and this can be seen on the far left of the window. The window was dedicated to Barclay Brook Head.
The first saint is “St Leonard the Confessor” a Frenchman.
St Leonard was born in the year 466 and was the cousin of King Clovis of France. Leonard accompanied Clovis in the wards against the Germans amd on his return he was offered a bishopric but turned this down to live the live of a humble monk.
Legend says that when Clovis’s wife Queen Clotilde was in childbirth, Leonard prayed for a safe delivery and when a healthy baby was born the King said that Leonard could have as much land as he could ride around in a day on a donkey. On this land Leonard founded an abbey where he based himself for the rest of his years.
Leonard had a remarkable charity towards prisoners for whom he provided help and prayer. Some said that prisoners were miraculously freed from their chains when Leonard visited them and other were freed after he petitioned his cousin for a royal pardon.
St Leonard lived to the ripe old age of 99 years and as well as being a patron saint of childbirth and prisoners, he is also the patron saint of ‘Sailors in Bondage’ Although this term seems rather dodgy in this day and age it of course means that he was revered by sailors who had been press-ganged into service. These sailors would visit the church when they stopped off at the port of Seaford.
The St Leonard depicted on our window is carrying a large book and a heavy ball and chain to represent the prisoners her helped.
The middle figure is St Wilfrid, a Northumbrian saint who was born in 634 and educated on the Island of Lindisfarne. He became the bishop of York but when the Archbishop of Canterbury decided to interfere with his work, he went to Rome to appeal directly to the Pope. On his return he was imprisoned and later sought refuge in Sussex where he founded Chichester Cathedral, the building which he is shown holding in this stained glass.
The figure to the right is St Pancras who is the patron saint of children and Lewes (but not railways) He was a 14 year old Roman martyr who for some reason was particularly revered by the early English. St Augustine named his first church in Canterbury after him and the priory at Lewes also bore his name. His symbol in art is the sword but in our window he is shown carrying a quill.
