"St. Benedikt. Benevent, XI. Jahrhundert, Rom. Postcard, ca. 6 x 4 in. Vatikan. Bibliothek. ars liturgica Kunstverlag Maria Laach (Germany) Nr. 5780."

Reverse: "Put on your best blue (!) cuculla w red (!) shoes for the feast. ...[Dom Jean] Leclercq's presence is a great blessing for us now in the S[chool] o[f] T[heology]. ...Pax et bonum, Helen O.S.F."

Leaflet cover. Orig: Stuttgart, Württembergishe Landesbibliothek, cod. hist. fol. 415 (detail).

Saint Benedict writing the Rule, pen-drawing in a codex from the Benedictine and Imperial Abbey of Our Lady (1089-1803), Zwiefalten, Oberschwaben, Germany. Select image for larger version.

"Saint Benedict of Nursia, 480-547."
Conxolus, 13th c., Subiaco (detail of circular fresco).

Bright frescos illuminate the Sacro Speco (holy cave) where young Benedict began his monastic career. Here, too, is what many judge to be the earliest graphic of Saint Francis Assisi, a contemporary of Conxolus, the artist.

Saint Benedict restores life

Giovanni del Biondo, Florence (active c. 1356 - 1398) tempera and gold leaf on panel, 33.7 x 37.5 cm. Toronto: AGO, 1953.

The Vision of Saint Benedct

Giovanni del Biondo
tempera and gold leaf on panel, 35.8 x 39.3 cm.Toronto: AGO, 1953 .

Perugrino; in the Vatican Museum, Rome.

Saint Benedict, 1495-98

Holy card showing Hans Memling: St. Benedict, 1487, oil on panel, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy.

Reverse: "A.D. MCMXXXIV xviii kal.sept. Presbyter ordinatus a Domino accepi quod primum obis tradidi xiv kal. sept. P. Hildebrandus Beck, monachus Schyrensis.
Annuntians mortem et sacratissimam resurrectionem Christi Domini donec veniat. + Veni Domine."

Stiftskirche Einsiedeln. Hl. Benedikt. Miniatur im Graduale von 1684.
Detail of postcard, ca. 4 x 6 in. Foto P. Damian Rutishauser.

Benedict sees the whole world in a beam of light shortly before his death.

Holy card. 19th c.?

The snake in the chalice recalls how a poisoned cup, given to Benedict by recalcitrant monks at Vicovaro, shattered after he blessed it with the sign of the cross. He abandoned that "laura" (semi-anchoretic monastic community) and returned to the solitude of his cave at Subiaco.

Holy card: 19th c.? Caption: "O Santce Pater, gratia et nomine a Deo Benedicte custodi nos, quaesumus, hodie et semper tua sancta benedictione."
Reverse: (autograph) "Intercedite pro nobis. Sr. R. osb. Chicago. 1954, M[arian] Year."

Holy card: 20th c. Saint Benedict (Beuronese).
ca. 4 x 2.5 in., paper. "K[loster] Beuron 1061 - © Germany"