Franz Mayer & Co.

Monaghan Saint Macartan's Cathedral Window Patrons of Ireland Detail Saint Patrick

Great window in the choir gallery of St. Mary – St. Catherine of Siena Parish (Charlestown, MA, USA)

In 1847, Joseph Gabriel Mayer (1808–1883) founded the “Institute for Christian Art“ in Munich, to make ecclesiastical furnishings.[2] Royal commissions for the Cologne and Regensburg cathedrals drew Mayer to create a stained glass department in 1860. In 1865 a branch was opened in London, and in 1888 in New York City.[3]

"Stylistically, Mayer's windows tend to contain richly colored scenes bordered by architectural frames consisting of pilasters, columns, architrave and elaborate canopies."[4] It represents an aesthetic that was evidently prized in its time for its craftsmanship and opulence as well as for its ability to engage the viewer emotionally and spiritually.[4]

Broadly speaking, the Munich Pictorial Style is Romantic and "owed much to the revival of religious painting - especially fresco painting in the tradition of the Italian Renaissance masters, especially Masaccio, Raphael, and Michelangelo - in Germany early in the 19th-century."[4] "The studio often incorporated imagery from Great Master paintings as well as compositions of the nineteenth century, a standard practice in public decorative work of the era. For example, a window in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Charleston, South Carolina, installed in 1907 or 1925-26, shows the Transfiguration of Christ modeled after the 1517 painting by Raphael in the Vatican."[5]

In 1882 the company was awarded the status of “Royal Bavarian Art Establishment“ by King Ludwig the II. In 1892, Pope Leo XIII named the company a “Pontifical Institute of Christian Art“.[3] "Munich glass windows could be imported as art, i.e., glass “paintings” and—exempt from a high tariff on imported “raw” glass ... the broad aesthetic appeal, economic advantage, and papal approval made Munich glass windows the overwhelming choice among Roman Catholics in the United States."[6] Mayer's commissions include over seventy-six cathedrals, twenty-six of them in the United States.

Along with stained glass, about half of the company's work is in mosaics. In the fifties and sixties, Mayer developed their own fibre-glass mesh. Adhesives have also been developed to the firm's own specifications. The company provides installation and curatorial services.[7]

The Mayer Co. is responsible for stained glass in at least ten of Ireland's Cathedral churches (Derry, Thurles, Letterkenny, Ballaghaderreen, Newry, Waterford, Ballina, Enniscorthy, Carlow, and Cobh). The work of Franz Mayer & Co. in Ireland is the subject of ongoing research at Trinity College Dublin. (as at January, 2020).[8]

Catholic cathedrals

Detail of a stained glass window featuring St. Dominic receiving the rosary from the Virgin Mary by Franz Mayer in Carlow Cathedral

Thurles Cathedral Rose Window

• Armagh RC Cathedral (St. Patrick's Catholic Cathedral, Armagh)
• Ballaghaderreen Cathedral
• Carlow Cathedral
• Cathedral of St Patrick and St Colman, Newry
• Derry Cathedral
• St. Aidan's Cathedral, Enniscorthy
• Letterkenny Cathedral
• Monaghan Cathedral
• Thurles Cathedral
• St. Patrick's Cathedral, Karachi 1878
• Epiphany Cathedral, Sioux City, Iowa

Close up shot of the Mayer & Co. maker's mark on a stained glass window in St. Edward Catholic Church in Palm Beach, Florida. Image shows the text "Mayer & Co. Munich New York".

Mayer & Co. mark on stained glass window in Omaha, Nebraska.

• St. Timothy's Episcopal Church, (Columbia, SC)
• Atlanta First United Methodist Church, Atlanta, Georgia
• Basilica of the Immaculate Conception (Jacksonville), Jacksonville, Florida
• Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Atlanta, Georgia Roman Catholic
• Basilica San Francisco de Asis, Mission Dolores, San Francisco (Roman Catholic)
• Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Covington, KY (Roman Catholic)
• Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Mobile, Alabama, (Roman Catholic)
• Cathedral Basilica of St. James, Brooklyn, New York (Roman Catholic)
• Cathedral Church of the Advent, Birmingham, Alabama {Episcopal)
• Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Biloxi, MS
• Cathedral of St. Andrew, Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Charleston, SC (Roman Catholic)
• Chapel of the Rock, Saint Malo Church, Colorado.
• Chapel of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost Preparatory School
• Christ and St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Norfolk, Virginia
• Christ Church (Greenville, South Carolina)
• Christ Church, Frederica St. Simons Island, Georgia (Episcopal)
• Church of the Holy Name of Mary, (1848) Newport, RI
• Church of the Most Holy Trinity, Augusta, GA (Roman Catholic)
• Church of Saint Peter, Saratoga Springs, NY (Roman Catholic)
• Corpus Christi Church, Buffalo, New York (Roman Catholic)
• Dahlgren Chapel of the Sacred Heart, Washington, D.C. (Roman Catholic)
• The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Motherhouse, Nashville, TN, St. Dominic Oratory and St. Cecilia Chapel[14]
• The Episcopal Church of the Holy Innocents, Henderson, NC
• Grace Episcopal Church, Radford, VA
• Mother of God, Covington, KY (Roman Catholic)
• Mulberry Street United Methodist Church, Macon, GA
• Our Lady Help of Christians, Philadelphia, PA, Port Richmond section of the city (Roman Catholic), established in 1885
• Our Lady of the Lake Catholic church, Louisiana
• Resurrection Roman Catholic Parish (formerly St. Stephen) in Johnstown, PA
• Sacred Heart Church, Norfolk, Virginia (Roman Catholic)
• St. Adalbert's Basilica, Buffalo, New York (Roman Catholic)
• St. Alphonsus Parish, Chicago, IL
• St. Ann's Catholic Church, Staten Island, NY
• Saint Anne's Catholic Church, Peasant Point Passamaquoddy Reservation, ME
• St. Catherine of Siena (New Orleans)
• St. Edward Roman Catholic Church, Palm Beach, Florida (Roman Catholic)[15]
• St. Elizabeth Church – Greenville Alabama
• St. Gertrude Parish, Chicago, IL
• St. Hyacinth Basilica, Avondale neighborhood of Chicago, IL
• St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church, Omaha, NE
• St. James Episcopal,[16] Greenville, South Carolina
• St. James Parish,[17] Haverhill, Massachusetts (Roman Catholic)
• Saint John Catholic Church, Westminster, MD
• St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Circleville, Ohio
• St. Joseph Catholic Church, Macon, Georgia
• St. Joseph Catholic Church, Stockbridge, MA
• St. Joseph's Parish,[18] Biddeford, ME (Roman Catholic)
• St. Joseph Catholic Church, Houston, TX www.saintjoseph.org
• St. Joseph's Villa, Richmond, Virginia, est. 1930
• St. Leo the Great Catholic Church, Philadelphia, PA
• St. Mary – St. Catherine of Siena Parish (Charlestown, MA)
• St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT[19]
• St. Mary's Church, Greenville, SC (Roman Catholic)
• St. Mary's Church, Newark, NJ
• St. Mary's Church, Uxbridge, Massachusetts
• St. Mary Help of Christians Church, Aiken, SC (Roman Catholic)
• St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church (Charleston, South Carolina)
• St. Matthew's Church, East Syracuse, NY
• St. Matthew's German Evangelical Lutheran Church, Charleston, South Carolina
• St. Michael's Church- Chicago, IL, in Old Town (Roman Catholic)
• St. Stanislaus – Bishop & Martyr Church, Buffalo, New York (Roman Catholic)
• St. Stephen the Martyr Catholic Church, Omaha, NE
• St. Thomas Aquinas, Lincoln, NE
• Shrine of the Sacred Heart Church, Baltimore, MD
• Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary, Monroe, MI
• Trinity Episcopal Church (Asbury Park)
• Trinity Episcopal Parish Church (Seattle)

• Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church (Ottawa)
• Cathedral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec
• Notre-Dame Basilica (Montreal)
• Cathedral of Christ the King (Hamilton)
• Cathedral Church of St. James (Toronto)
• Cathedral of St Mary of the Immaculate Conception and St James Chapel, Kingston Ontario
• Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Saint John
• Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Guelph, Ontario (Roman Catholic)[20]
• St. Michael's Cathedral (Toronto)
• St. Patrick's Basilica, Ottawa
• St. Patrick's Church, Halifax
• St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Toronto

St. Andrews Catholic Church, St. Andrews West Ont.

• All Saints Church, Appleton Roebuck, near York, North Yorkshire, England
• All Saints' Church, Dunedin Aotearoa New Zealand
• Church of St Michael, Princetown[21]
• Holy Trinity Church, Nice, France: four examples[22]
• Pershore Abbey, Pershore, Worcestershire, England – east single lancet in SE transept (1879) and east window in NE chapel (1879–80)[23]
• Metropolitan Cathedral of Antofagasta, Chile, 1910[24]
• St. John the Evangelist, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
• St John's Church, Acaster Selby, near York, North Yorkshire, England
• St. Mary's Fochabers, Moray, Scotland.
• All Saints' Church, Rockwell Green, Somerset, England

• Franz Xaver Zettler, glass painter and Mayer's son-in-law

• Franz Mayer of Munich, Inc website