Their purpose was to separate the nave (where the congregation sits) from the chancel (around the altar, where the clergy would be) and were intricately carved with local saints, donors, or other figures.
Inside the Abbey, a Congregation of more than 2,000 people, the royal family, Kings and Queens, presidents and prime ministers, and members of the public.
The attacker, a 40-year-old former U.S. Marine rammed his car into the building before setting it ablaze and shooting into the packed congregation with an assault rifle.
The young family ended up in the southwestern Wisconsin hamlet of Burton, sponsored by the families of St. Paul Lutheran, where my father later preached.