In summer 2026, we will open the doors to a 5,000-square-foot chapel on the FMOL Health | Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s & Children’s campus — a space created for reflection, healing and spiritual respite in Acadiana.
After years of thoughtful planning, this chapel stands as a testament not only to our mission of care, but to the hands that brought it to life. Crafted by a dedicated community of artisans — carpenters, builders and stained glass artists — it reflects both skill and soul. Among them is Stephen Wilson, whose work has filled many of FMOL Health’s spaces over the years, once again bringing light, color and meaning into this new sanctuary.
Today, Our Lady of Lourdes Foundation is offering naming opportunities for the windows by calling Our Lady of Lourdes Foundation at (337) 470-4610.
Sister Rita, Our Franciscan Purveyor of Stained Glass
Sister Rita Katherine Lanie had an intuitive ability to see beauty where others might pass it by — especially in color, in light, and in the quiet ways those elements can move the human spirit. It’s that same sensibility — intentional, reflective and deeply Franciscan — that will live on in the chapel at Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s & Children’s Hospital.
“When we began planning the chapel years ago, the first person I reached out to was Sister Rita,” says Jeigh Stipe, executive director of Our Lady of Lourdes Foundation. “I knew she was a stained glass artist herself, and that she had been involved in similar projects. Her response was immediate: ‘You must call Stephen. He is a masterful artist who can tell stories through stained glass beautifully.’”
Sister Rita understood, instinctively, that stained glass was never just decorative — it was narrative. It was light transformed into meaning. And she knew exactly who could bring that vision to life.
Before the first piece of glass was ever cut for this chapel, there was Sister Rita — an artist in her own right — who believed deeply in the role beauty plays in healing.
Our Story in the Glass: The Seven Days
When the chapel windows were first imagined, the direction was familiar — figures, saints, tradition. But Stephen Wilson sees things differently.
“My work is about movement,” Stephen says. “I like to tell stories — narratives inspired by the Bible and shaped for the space. Every client is different. Because this is a women’s and children’s hospital, I think about creation, creativity and where life begins.”
Inspired by the Franciscan spirit and a deeper reflection on creation, he proposed a new approach — not just who we revere, but how God began His great work in the very beginning.
Drawing on those roots, the windows tell the story of creation — each one reflecting a day, culminating in the Holy Trinity and Mary. As light passes through the glass, it does more than illuminate the space — it carries the story forward, shifting, changing and meeting each person in a different way.
And while God took seven days for creation, Stephen and his team spent months bringing the 11 stained glass windows to life — cutting more than 6,000 pieces by hand and delicately soldering them into works of art.
In Memory of Sister Rita
Born in New Iberia and shaped by Acadiana, Sr. Rita was a proud Cajun who passed away in 2021. We know she would love our new chapel — especially the windows. As the sun moves through each pane of glass and fills the space with light, we will be reminded of her warmth, her creativity and the lasting impact of her spirit.
