MERIDIAN — A set of stained-glass windows formerly housed in a Pittsburgh church have found a new home in Meridian.

The 14 windows, measuring roughly 30 inches wide by as much as 17 feet tall, will be the focal point of a new narthex being built at St. Fidelis Roman Catholic Church on Buttercup Road.

The windows were originally installed in 1950 at St. Henry Roman Catholic Church in the Arlington neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The Rev. James Murphy, pastor of St. Fidelis, said he jumped at the chance to purchase the windows after St. Henry closed in 2005.

"I found out about it and offered to take the stained glass windows," Murphy said. "I paid to have them taken out because the church had to take them out anyway — because they are not allowed to sell stained-glass windows to a private dealer."Simultaneously, a growth trend at St. Fidelis rendered the church's 8- by 10-foot narthex too small to accommodate the congregation, made up of more than 1,400 families. With a gift toward its construction, a larger space was designed by the Butler architectural firm Burt Hill to showcase the windows.

"I'm excited because it's going to give our parish a beautiful warm welcoming area to greet people in," Murphy said, explaining how the window images depict the history of the church as well as the history of the martyrs. "It's also (going to be) a great teaching tool for our students and for the adults."To prepare for installation in their new home, the windows are cycling through the glass studio where they were created in 1950.That facility, Hunt Stained Glass Studios in Pittsburgh, did some repair and maintenance on the windows and is storing them until installation this spring.Nicholas Parrendo, who has owned Hunt since 1987, said he remembers the windows from 1950 because he had just begun an apprenticeship at the studio under designer Helen Carew Hickman.

"I remember just seeing the blues," Parrendo recalled. "I was so struck by the color. When you see transparent color, you're seeing pure color. It was awesome."Parrendo said Hickman worked at the studio until 1956, when she moved to Milwaukee with her husband."She worked for a stained-glass studio there until she retired," he said of Hickman, who passed away in July. "She became one of the top designers in the country and the first woman president of the Stained Glass Association of America."Since the windows are relatively new, Parrendo said they didn't require restorative work like reglazing, but several panes were repaired along with other minor cleaning and maintenance.In addition to those recycled windows, St. Fidelis had a new window made to recognize the history of the parish, which consists of the church on Buttercup Road and one on Penn Avenue in Lyndora. Those churches formerly were known as St. Conrad Roman Catholic Church and St. Stanislaus Kostka Roman Catholic Church, respectively.Although the entire project, including the window purchase, will cost about $850,000, Murphy said the donation will pay for a sizeable portion. Parishioners will also be able to memorialize loved ones by contributing toward the project, he said.Murphy expects the project to be complete by late April.

Russell Diehl, left, and his brother, Craig Diehl, of Russell Industries watch as workers pour concrete for the footer of an addition at St. Fidelis Roman Catholic Church in Meridian. The church purchased 14 stained-glass windows from the now-closed St. Henry Roman Catholic Church in Pittsburgh and will use them in the addition, represented in the drawing above. The photographs flanking the page show two of the windows, which chronicle church history. St. Fidelis' growth spurred the expansion, and another specialized stained-glass window was made from scratch that commemorates the history of the parish.