Congressman seeks return of historic stained-glass window to Kentucky chapel
A Kentucky congressman has waded into the controversy over moving a stained-glass window that is more than 500 years old from a chapel in Eastern Kentucky.
U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, a Republican who represents Eastern and Southern Kentucky, asked Frontier Nursing University to return the window to a small stone chapel in Leslie County.
Rogers said the window was a gift to Mary Breckinridge, who founded Frontier Nursing, and she intended for it to be part of the chapel on Thousandsticks Mountain overlooking Hyden.
“Quite frankly, the action taken by this board to quietly remove the stained-glass window, as well as the educational operations from Leslie County, does not align with Mary Breckinridge’s legendary heart of service and courageous action for the Appalachian people,” Rogers said in the letter released by his office Monday.
The 15th-Century window depicts Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers.
Breckinridge moved to Leslie County in the 1920s to provide health care for mothers and babies in what was then an isolated part of Appalachia with high infant-death rates.
Her nurses initially rode horses through creeks into the narrow hollows to deliver babies and treat mothers because there were few good roads.
Breckridge “pioneered a selfless passion for health care that often gets lost in a world of greed today,” Rogers said in his letter.
The program was called Frontier Nursing Service, which transitioned to Frontier Nursing University. The university trains nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners and has more than 2,000 students.
Frontier Nursing is an integral part of the history of Leslie County. Many residents and former residents can trace their birth to the service founded by Breckinridge.
The service also helped the economy of the county, which has suffered from a drop in coal jobs. That’s why there have been hard feelings in the county because of FNU’s decision to move operations to a campus in Woodford County.
Administrators moved in 2018 and on-campus events for students are projected to start in 2021, according to FNU.
The university uses distance learning for much of its program, but has orientation and clinical sessions on campus.
FNU said it needed to move to the Versailles campus to accommodate growing enrollment and expand its program.
Many residents of Leslie County want to hold on to longstanding ties with Breckinridge and Frontier Nursing, including the window and the house at Wendover where Breckinridge spent decades before her death in 1965.
FNU removed the window from the chapel without notice to local officials last Wednesday, angering many residents, said Hyden Mayor Carol Graham Joseph.
Rogers said “countless” constituents had contacted his office about the window being moved.
The university said the window would inspire students at its new campus.
Frontier Nursing said last week it plans to install a replica of the window in the Hyden chapel.
Rogers suggested instead using the replica at the Versailles campus and putting the original back in the chapel where it had been since 1960.
Rogers said he joined with the people of Leslie County in calling for the return of the window to the chapel in Leslie County “where Mary Breckinridge’s mission of love first began.”
