During school days, students and school staff entering St. Thomas More College (STM) from their north entrance will be greeted with the sight of a peculiar pair of large doors being displayed at the entrance near the cafeteria. Dubbed as The Mosaic Doors, they feature 52 various panels of unique symbols that, according to St. Thomas More College, represent the different subjects in the fields of art and science that were offered by the college when the doors were made.

The colourful and enameled copper doors were crafted by well-known Vancouver artist Lionel Thomas (1915-2005). He did this using the cloisonné technique, which has its origins in Mycenaean Greece and has been used in various art pieces across the world, particularly Russian and Chinese. The technique is done when the desired piece is formed using a plate of bronze and copper. The artist then draws their desired design, and metal blades are contoured, arranged and welded to the plate based on the drawing’s outline. The enamel is then poured into partitions, and sanded down.

The Mosaic Doors were originally installed in 1963 as functional doors at STM’s north entrance as part of the expansion plans that also added the library wing and cafeteria, and the new sections officially opened on Feb. 6, 1964. 

In 2017, STM  underwent another renovation which included the removal of The Mosaic Doors. The doors had begun to deteriorate due to their repeated exposure to Saskatchewan’s harsh elements over more than 50 years.  People were saddened with the state of these doors which has been an iconic part of their college days. 

In order to allow the legacy of this unique piece of art to continue on, the doors were enshrined as an art exhibit just past the current entrance. STM alumna and current  Director of Ministry,  Dr. Gertrude Rompré, said that, “These doors have been an important symbol for St. Thomas More and Newman student groups since the 1960s when they were installed, and so for that reason we felt it was important to display those doors as a prominent piece of artwork at our entrance.”

That is why alumni and former Newman group members Angeline and Art Battiste funded the restoration of the mosaic doors so that they can be preserved and continuously enjoyed by the STM community. 

Every panel in the door represents a subject such as political science, history (the hourglass), stress & strain (engineering), sub-fields of biology such as zoology, mathematics, philosophy, a wheat sheaf (agriculture), language, education, psychology, architecture, archeology, chemistry and natural history. Aside from academic  courses, the doors  also contain symbols which pertain to Christian spirituality and elements of  nature, such as  the soil, life above ground, the Holy Trinity, and the elements of fire, earth and water. Thomas placed these last three elements at the bottom of the doors because he wanted to depict “man’s transcendence” where “out of the lower arises the upper.”

Thomas also creates  other artworks found in the college, such as a painting of Mary, Queen of the Universe’s Assumption into Heaven at the STM chapel and four other sets of copper doors which are the current entrance doors to the chapel on the south side of the college. Both of these pieces preceded The Mosaic Doors and were a gift by former Saskatchewan Chief Justice Emmett Hall’s family in 1956. Last of Thomas’ pieces at the college is a bronze bas-relief sculpture entitled The Moment of Truth, created in 1963, which is located outside the south side  of the college, facing College Drive.