April 8-14, 2004

book quicks

by A.D. Amorosi

Holy Cards

By Barbara Calamari and Sandra DiPasqua Abrams Books, 144 pp., $24.95

Bob Dylan once sang of "the postcards of the hanging" -- the artifacts that mark the direness of death, the detritus left behind, literally and figuratively. In a world that makes jewelry of a crucifixion's nails and relics out of a tragedy, it's lovely to see the elegant sanctity of the "holy card" still remaining as a sign of some everlasting form of divinity and gentility. Cataloging this Catholic death ritual -- one where portable images of Jesus, Mary and/or saints are handed out at wakes and funerals (as well as baptisms and confirmations) with prayers and personal messages on the back of each decorated card -- are writer Barbara Calamari and graphic designer Sandra DiPasqua. They've done this sort of thing before, exalting the totems of Christian iconography in Our Lady of Guadalupe in a Box and Novena: The Power of Prayer. But this singular volume on holy cards -- a seemingly newfound form of folk art not unlike baseball cards -- is concerned not only with the histories of the saints portrayed in various poses of heavenly outreach, but with the artists who depict these disturbing images. While the halo-encircled likes of Saints Francis, Peter and Rita may be meant to lie with the lambs in pastel tones, other cards depict bleaker images -- like a dour Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini and a Christ (like the caked and bloodied statue of his scourging that stood at Philadelphia's St. Mary of Czestochowa) as embattled as the one in The Passion. Meant to bring comfort to the grieving and joy to new parents, the images can be provocative and haunting -- a perfectly apt bookend to a life lived Catholic-ly.

-- Respond to this article in our Forums -- click to jump there