The windows of St. Mary Magdalen Chapel

This lovely chapel was built during the WWI years from the contributions and dreams of the Camarillo Family in Camarillo, California. The most notable fixtures of this Spanish style building are its magnificent 13 stained windows. These azure, crimson, green and gold windows tell a double story - one of the life of Christ, the other of a world at war.

While on a trip to Europe, Juan Camarillo selected the windows in Munich, Germany. The year was 1913, and the rumbles of the continent gathering its strength for conflict were growing with each passing day. Somewhere between the studios of glassblower F. X. Zettler of Munich and the church on a hilltop in faraway Camarillo, the stained glass windows were lost. Despite the best efforts of the Camarillo family through consuls and ambassadors, the windows appeared to be lost forever. Juan Camarillo feared they were at the bottom of the sea.

One day a letter arrived from a German official. This official in Munich had been noticing several large crates staked outside a building with Juan's name on them. He had written Juan several letters and finally one got through at the end of Word War 1. Much to the joy and relief of everyone, the lost windows had been found. However, it was a painfully slow and long trek to Los Angeles, and then on to Camarillo, before they were finally replacing the temporary, heavy paper windows in the thick brick and plastered chapel walls in 1919.

Our marriage was officiated in this beautiful chapel in 1985. I'm dedicating this story to my dearly loved husband's memory who departed three years ago.