Stations of the Cross

Robert A. Leader, professor emeritus of art, art history and design at Notre Dame, designed and painted the Stations of the Cross at Little Flower. He was also a friend of Father Payne, first pastor, and Frank Montana, architect of the parish, and a long time parishioner at Little Flower.

Leader taught for two years at Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa, before coming to Notre Dame in 1953. Carrying a heavy teaching load, he quickly became one of the University's most celebrated instructors. A memorable indication of his skills as a lecturer was the sustained standing ovation he once received from his students at the end of a crowded Washington Hall lecture on the unpromising subject of Gothic cathedral architecture.

One of his specialties, both as a scholar and a craftsman, was stained glass, and his many works in that medium include windows in Saint Matthew's Cathedral in South Bend and in the chapel of Notre Dame's Sorin Hall. He once said of the attempt to teach liturgical art craft, " It is hardly an academic task to teach young people to capture the sound and sight of God in any media. It is like wrestling a thunderbolt in an attempt to nail it to the wall of a church. There are few who can survive such an arduous task."