When St. Clement’s closed, people got a little over-zealous about removing anything religious. Marble was ripped out and tossed in the yard. Pieces of the pipe organ disappeared. And the stained-glass windows had big sections torn right out of them.
It was sad to see so much beauty just… destroyed.
But one thing survived.
There was a locked door no one ever bothered to break open. Behind it — up the ladder into the bell tower — there’s a single stained-glass window that was never touched.
It shows Saint Peter.
(I only figured that out after asking ChatGPT to help identify it!)
The bells are way up higher in the tower, but this window sits below them, tucked away and forgotten… and that’s probably why it was spared.
So to me, Saint Peter is “the one who got away.” I jokingly say I hope the Vatican doesn’t send the church police to come claim him — because he feels like a small miracle that stayed behind.
And yes — we’ve repaired and restored the damaged windows since then.
But Saint Peter still watches quietly from the bell tower, exactly where he’s meant to be.
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