The Bible and the Energy of Illumination

Viking Theft – Irish TreasureImagine it is about 900 AD. A ferocious group of Vikings is raiding the Isle of Iona in Scotland. Bursting right into a monastery, they find a perfect lighted manuscript, containing the four Gospels of the Brand New Testament. It is the most impressive thing they have ever seen. So they place it in a cloak and make off with it.Not long afterward, this valuable work of art surprisingly gets to the Abbey of Kells, County Meath, Ireland. Unsurprisingly, Kells Abbey was itself plundered and pillaged by Vikings often in the 10th Century, but somehow, the important manuscript survived.After being eliminated by the Catholic Church in 1541 for safekeeping, it was returned to Ireland and given to Trinity College, Dublin. It’s now he oldest illuminated Scripture manuscript in existence and considered one of Ireland’s most valuable national treasures.This is a brief, incomplete story of The Book of Kells. But if you are luckily enough to visit Dublin and make the right path to the Library at Trinity College, you will undoubtedly by stunned by the art of Christian iconography with the swirling art motifs and vibrant colors showing figures of humans, animals and legendary animals, surrounded by Celtic troubles and extremely detailed interlacing. And you’ll recall this viewing for the rest of your life.The Two Foot Tall – Three Foot Wide – Four Million Dollar Bible Fast-forward 1000 years to the start of the new Millennium. English Master calligrapher, Donald Jackson is in Wales realizing an ongoing dream.Working with a group of theologians and artists from Saint John’s Abbey and University, Jackson has spent the last six years scribing and demonstrating an using quills and shows hand-ground from minerals and stones such as lapis lazuli, malachite, magic, copper and 24-karat gold.Commissioned by Saint John’s Abbey and University, The Saint John’s Bible is a modern work of art produced in the history of medieval manuscripts and the first handwritten, lighted Bible to be commissioned by a monastery since the arrival of the printing press more than 500 years ago.”The Saint John’s Bible makes a statement about religion, in addition to the importance of art and imagination,” claimed Brother Dietrich Reinhart, OSB, president of Saint John’s University. “We are satisfied to share with you our work and introduce new components of the project to audiences in the united states through this prolonged tour.”The Saint John’s Bible is seven volumes and two feet high by three feet wide when open. The Bible is made of vellum with 160 illuminations, and has cost $4 million to create. And you can now begin To See The Saint John’s Bible through the photos and data on the web, at among the touring displays, or at its house, the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library on the campus of Saint John’s University.The Order Of St. The reader is instructed by benedict to “listen… with the hearing of your heart. As you find out more about The Saint John’s Bible, it’s our desire that the Scriptures will open to you and that your journey here will become a journey toward God.”

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