Holy cards are small,
devotional pictures
mass-produced for the use of the faithful. They typically depict a religious scene or a
saint in an image about the size of a
playing card or collectible card. The reverse typically contains a
prayer, some of which promise an
indulgence for its recitation. The circulation of these cards is an important part of the visual
folk culture of Catholics.
Old master prints, nearly all on religious subjects, served many of the same functions as holy cards, especially the cheaper
woodcuts; the earliest dated surviving example is from 1423, and depicts
Saint Christopher, with handcolouring. Later
engraving or
etching were more commonly used. Some had elaborate borders of
paper lace surrounding the images; these were called
dévotes dentelles in
France.
The invention of colour
lithography made it possible to reproduce coloured images cheaply, leading to a much broader circulation of the cards. An early centre of their manufacture was in the environs of the
Church of St Sulpice in
Paris; the lithographed images made there were done in delicate
pastel colours, and proved extremely influential on later designs.
Belgium and
Germany also became centres of the manufacture of holy cards, as did
Italy in the twentieth century. Catholic printing houses (such as
Maison de la Bonne Presse in France and
Ars Sacra in Germany) produced large numbers of cards, and often a single design was printed by different companies in different countries.
Special holy cards are printed by Catholics to be distributed at
funerals; these are "memorial cards", with details and often a photograph of the person whom they commemorate as well as prayers printed on the back. Other specialized holy cards remember
baptisms,
confirmations, and other religious anniversaries. Others are not customized, and circulate to promote the
veneration of the saints and images they bear.
At the end of the nineteenth century, some
Protestants attempted to answer these Catholic images with similar images of their own. They produced
Bible cards or
Sunday school cards, with lithographed illustrations depicting
Bible stories and
parables, more modern scenes of religious life or prayer, or sometimes just a Biblical text illuminated by
calligraphy; these were linked to Biblical passages that related to the image. The reverse typically held a
sermonette instead of a prayer. Imagery here was always the servant of text, and as such these Protestant cards tended to be replaced by
tracts that emphasized message instead of imagery, and were illustrated with
cartoon-like images if they were illustrated at all.
See also
