The Saint John's Bible: Virtual Tour

Copyright © Life of Paul, Aidan Hart with contributions from Andrew Jamieson, Copyright 2002, The Saint John’s Bible, Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota USA. Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

Life of Paul

Acts 9:1-22; 15:1-35; 17:16-34; 22:17-21; 25-28
Primary artist: Donald Jackson, in collaboration with Aidan Hart and contributions from Andrew Jamieson (Calderhead, 2015).

This illumination of the life of Paul is represented here by an “anthology of incidents” from his life (Sink, 2013, p.279). Donald Jackson first drafted this illumination to have "a series of scenes for the Acts of the Apostles" (Calderhead, 2015, p.179). As the image took form it became more unified, with details relating to specific events of the series being removed in preference of a broader treatment of an anthology. The style also changed, the initial rendition, drawn in a traditional iconographic style, evolved into a collage of urban images both sacred and secular, and ancient and modern (Calderhead, 2015).

Known as both a man of cities and as a traveller, a Greco-Roman sailing vessel brings to light the many journeys Paul took to deliver his message. The text above his head, refers to the light filled vision that resulted in his dramatic conversion to Christianity and the text below his feet is a reference to his missionary calling to the far reaches of the known world (Calderhead, 2015; Library of Congress, n.d.; Sink, 2013). 

References

Calderhead, C. (2015). Illuminating the Word: The making of The Saint John’s Bible (2nd ed.). Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.

Library of Congress (n.d.) Illuminating the Word: The St. John’s Bible online exhibition. Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/stjohnsbible/stjohns-exhibit.html

Sink, S. (2013).  The art of The Saint John's Bible: The complete reader's guide.  Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.