FOLEY, Ala. — The parish that is St. Margaret Queen of Scotland Catholic Church was founded in 1906. On the other side of the world that same year, in Munich, Germany, stained glass windows were being made by a studio that no longer exists by name.

Now, a hundred years later, the stained glass windows and the parish that came into existence the same year will be joined for the future. Yet, the connection isn’t only about Foley, Ala., and Munich, Germany. It’s about Philadelphia, Pa., as well.

The Rev. Paul Zoghby, pastor at St. Margaret, said the 12 large windows - each 7 feet wide and 14 feet tall - will be the “centerpiece” of the new $4.5 million church currently under construction at 601 W. Laurel Ave.

At present, the windows are at Beyer Studio Inc. in Philadelphia where they are being “recreated” for the Foley church. They are being reworked, cleaned, releaded and fitted for their place in the new St. Margaret Catholic Church, Zoghby said this week.

“We were considering taking the stained glass windows out of the present church and putting them in the new church,” Zoghby said.

The windows in the current church, built in 1951, are about 3 feet by 5 feet, Zoghby said, but the holes for windows in the new church are much larger. Architect Otis Gatlin feared the small windows placed in the new church building would look “strange,” Zoghby said.

“We didn’t know what we were going to do.”

And that’s where the Philadelphia connection came to pass.

The Rev. Patrick Driscoll of St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Montgomery is a graduate of a seminary in Philadelphia that the Mobile archdiocese uses to educate some of its priests. Driscoll contacted Zoghby approximately two and a half years ago and told him the Philadelphia archdiocese was closing a half dozen churches within the city’s urban center. These were churches that had declined in attendance due to the fact parishioners had moved into suburban areas.

Some of the churches were “magnificent,” Driscoll told Zoghby; he should check with the archdiocese to see what stained glass might be available.

Zoghby did, contacting a person with the archdiocese’s Ecclesiastical Closures. He was sent a DVD of stained glass that was available from the closed churches. Some of the churches were ethic, so the stained glass might be of saints from Poland or Germany, Zoghby said.

But one of the churches, Our Lady of Victory, had large windows that depicted scenes that pertained to the life of Jesus.

“Everybody can relate to those,” Zoghby said of the 12 windows that will eventually adorn the new St. Margaret Catholic Church, five on the west wall, five on the east, and two in the altar area. The windows will be placed in chronological order around the church, according to Zoghby.

Each window will have an angel in the canopy of each lancet window. The angels, currently being designed at Beyer Studio, will hold a symbolic object(s) that depicts that particular scene in the life of Jesus. For example, in the window depicting “The Annunciation” the angel will hold lilies.

The other window scenes and what each angel will hold are as follows: “Nativity of the Lord” (a musical instrument, such as a harp); “Presentation of Jesus in Temple” (dove); “Holy Family” (carpenter’s square); “Finding of Lord in Temple” (commandments); “Baptism” (water pitcher); “Wedding Feast at Cana” (wedding rings); “Our Lord Blesses the Children” (scripture reference, Mark 10:13-14); “The Last Supper” (chalice); “Crucifixion” (crown of thorns); “Resurrection” (five roses, signifying the five wounds of Christ); and “Acension” (crown and scepter).

“I think they’re prettier in our configuration than they were in theirs,” said Zoghby of the Zettler Studio windows that were in the Romaneqsue style church in Philadelphia. The new St. Margaret church will be Gothic.

“In style, we wanted to build something that looks like it would fit in Foley, sort of that ‘carpenter Gothic’ look, which the first St. Margaret was,” Zoghby said. He also referred to the new church as “country Gothic” with that “board and batten look.”

The Zettler Studio that originally made the glass was bought out by Mayer, a name that is still around, according to Zoghby. “It’s really pretty glass,” he said.

The Mobile archdiocese is spending $144,000 for the 12 windows and $135,000 to restore them, Zoghby said.

“It will make a beautiful church,” said Zoghby of the stained glass windows. (He has been pastor at St. Margaret for four and a half years.)

The new church will “comfortably” seat 700 to 750, according to the pastor. The current church seats 200 to 225.

“We’ve had the blessing in the last four years (of adding) on average 65 families a year. That’s real consistent growth,” said Zoghby of the need for a new church building, one that parishioners hope to be in by November of this year. At present, things are on schedule, he said.

Whenever the parishioners move into the church, that is when the bishop will consecrate the building and, among other things, bless the windows made in Munich that have come to Foley as part of St. Margaret’s gospel mission.

Arch Aluminum in Florida is making the frames for the windows and Mobile Glass will install those frames and place protective glass over the stained glass windows once they are in place.

Meanwhile, Zoghby calls it a “dream team” that has brought the new church to this point. His reference is to E-J Builders and Jim Jurkiewicz and Otis Gatlin, the architect.

Zoghby, noting that Beyer Studio in Philadelphia has done work all over the country and has “fantastic” credentials, said Joe Beyer says he has never worked with a more “accomplished, intelligent and creative architect” than Gatlin.