Brother Symeon Gillette, O.S.B., left an indelible mark on the world with his passions and talents. He established the Medieval Arts Guild, known officially as The Guild of Saint Columkille, at Saint Louis Priory School and created stunning works of art that continue to inspire awe and admiration.
Born on July 15, 1949, in Hicksville, New York, into a family of six children and given the name Michael, he embodied a love for nature, animals, art, teaching, and people.
He entered the Saint Louis Abbey in 1977 and took the religious name Symeon. He made his simple vows in 1979 and solemn vows in 1982.
Brother Symeon is best known for his stainedglass work. He taught classes at Priory in the 1990s. In addition to stained glass, he taught mechanical drawing, calligraphy, and bannermaking. His students affectionately called him “Bro.”
Encouraged to imitate past masters, students crafted stained glass projects inspired by Chartres Cathedral in France. As the school planned an extension, Brother Symeon proposed creating two commemorative windows: The Millennial Window and The Jubilee Window.
“I was fortunate enough to be Bro’s friend and his fellow master of The Guild,” says Medieval Arts Teacher Mary Claire MacDonald. “He mentored me in his quiet, gentle, distant way. For five years, everything I’ve done here has been to make him proud. My entire way of behaving here is underwritten by a deep love and respect for Brother Symeon — and that’s not going to change.”
MacDonald, whose husband Joe MacDonald ’06 attended Priory, says Brother Symeon’s relationship to time was “so beautiful, so ancient, so new — and it required special equipment to maintain.”
“This equipment was faith and love,” she fondly remembers. “You don’t put different but precise amounts of water into orchids with a pipette for years if you don’t have faith they will eventually bloom and be beautiful. And you don’t do this if you don’t love plants and more profoundly — if you don’t love beauty. In this same way, Bro cultivated his students and all those around him. He taught gently, personally, almost imperceptibly nudging people in the right direction, quietly, often by telling stories.”
MacDonald reflects, “His faith in his students, colleagues, and friends enabled his gentle way of leading and teaching. It’s not a love that ebbs and flows — but one that’s constant, one that undergirds each little action and gesture. One of my favorite Bro quotes is ‘When you have faith in kids, great things happen.’”
The Emerson Stained Glass Windows
In 1995, under the direction of Brother Symeon Gillette, O.S.B., Priory launched a new program to commemorate two important anniversaries. The goal was for students to build two significant stained-glass windows. The windows were to be incorporated into the fabric of the high school.
The first window is known as the Millennial Window commemorating the Two Thousandth Anniversary of the Incarnation of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The second window is known as the Jubilee Window and commemorates the 50th Anniversary of the arrival in St. Louis of the first three monks from the Benedictine Abbey of Ampleforth, England.
Each window consists of 21 separate handcrafted stained-glass panels. The master drawing for each panel was sketched then refined by brush and India Ink. Each is either an interpretation of an existing window or an original design by Brother Symeon. With the use of these drawings, most panels were crafted by students who cut, ground, and painted (where needed) more than 15,000 individual pieces of glass.
Brother Symeon inspired many and embodied Benedictine values, quietly accepting suffering, and embracing simplicity, patience, and humility. May he rest in peace.
