Sunday, March 29, 2009

What altar cards from the Holy Land used to look like...


Anybody who has been to the Holy Land has seen the countless souvenir objects for sale in and around Jerusalem made from this material.

This photo was taken in a Franciscan convent of the Francescani dell'Immacolata in Imperia, Italy. It is an 1895 Franciscan altar card made in the Holy Land. Would be nice to see Christian artisans in that part of the world again make these very unique and special treasures.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't see how they could even read the cards. Especially in the days before electricity! don Jeffry

Anonymous said...

"this material" would be mother of pearl.

-mary ann

Anonymous said...

The Mother-of-Pearl is from Bethlehem and the artisans there could easily reproduce this if there was a demand.