Monk's artistic vision shines through church windows around country

Published: 2004-01-12

CONYERS, Ga. (CNS) -- Father Methodius Telnack's artistic vision shines through windows in churches and other institutions from Blue Ridge Mountain towns in Appalachia to a Native American mission in Arizona. The 75-year-old monk from the Trappist Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers has been designing stained glass for more than 45 years. His art ranges from a current project -- windows in the style of ancient Celtic manuscripts for the chapel of St. Thomas More in Decatur, Ga. -- to the tall windows in shades of blue, pink and white that he began making in 1957 for the church at his own abbey. A one-time Marine and student of art and architecture, Father Telnack entered the monastery in 1949 after having attended an Easter retreat there, he told the Georgia Bulletin, newspaper of the Atlanta Archdiocese. When the Trappists -- also known as Cistercians of the Strict Observance -- first came to Conyers in 1944, the monks planned to stick to the order's medieval tradition of shunning stained glass for a simpler, more Puritan-like style for the monastery. But an abbot general who visited during a record summer heat wave persuaded them that using stained-glass windows would make the structure cooler.

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