Holy cards with Representations of Infant Jesus from the Collection of Reverend Mozė Mitkevičius: catalogue
Holy cards with Representations of Infant Jesus from the Collection of Reverend Mozė Mitkevičius: catalogue. Compiler Skirmantė Smilingytė-Žeimienė. Vilnius: Bažnytinio paveldo muziejus, 2014, 94 p.
The collection of holy cards of the Reverend Mozė Mitkevičius presented in the catalogue of exhibition is not the largest in Lithuania. However, it is quite substantial, and the prevailing production of the most important European and Lithuanian publishers of holy cards of the 19th – first half of the 20th century allows us to see the key tendencies of the tradition of holy cards – the nature and intentions of religiosity, iconographic panorama, fashions of artistic expression and decoration, and various production techniques. And, certainly, the human touch.
Holy cards, or devotional or saints’ pictures, which were often referred to as abrozdėliai in Lithuania in the 19th and early 20th century, were printed or drawn images of Christian iconography, devotional objects attributed to the category of small or small-scale prints. These images were usually kept in a prayer book and were also called prayer-book images. They were also used as bookmarks and as decorations of prayer books or mobile illustrations with short prayers on the reverse.
The basic function of holy cards was increasing individual piety. Creators of these pictures sought to make an ideological connection between the image and the text, if there was any. Another function of the pictures – serving as a memory of some event – was also marked with intimacy. Texts printed on the reverse and hand-inscribed words mark various occasions: the acceptance of the sacraments of the First Communion or priesthood, the first service of the Holy Mass, the vows taken by monks, the performed missions, spiritual exercises, celebrated anniversaries, visitation of parishes, etc. They were given as gifts on various occasions.
The catalogue is published in Lithuanian.
Compiler and author of the text: Skirmantė Smilingytė-Žeimienė
Editor: Rita Markulienė
Designer and photographer: Gedas Čiuželis
Sponsors: Archdiocese of Vilnius, Lithuanian Council for Culture, The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania
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