Monday, March 12, 2007

Monk's Day, Illuminated Manuscripts, and Book of Kells

In school, our daughter's 4th grade class has been studying the Middle Ages, and in order to understand more about life in the monastery, they had a Monk's Day, where they fasted (a little), wore simple Monk's clothes, took a vow of silence (broken a little), and devoted themselves to monastic devotions like singing and reading and copying Scripture. About a week later, she surprised me by telling me that that was one of her favorite days. Why? I asked - and she answered, "I loved doing the calligraphy. It was so beautiful."

One of their activities was to write verses from the Bible using calligraphy pens on parchment paper. Her teacher had copied a beautiful border onto the sheets and they meticulous hand-painted it in watercolors. They also stitched together the different pages with needle and thread.



Illuminated manuscripts are a beautiful legacy of medieval monasteries. One of the most remarkable is the Book of Kells, copied around 800 A.D. and tucked away in the monastery for safekeeping so it wouldn't be destroyed by Viking raiders.



We really are out of town now - we'll be back blogging later this week.

Book of Kells Images

Book of Kells, Austin College

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2 comments:

  1. UnknownMay 11, 2008 at 11:58 AM

    Ah, the Book of Kells. One of my favorites. I think it originated in the monastery at Iona, but was moved to the one at Kells because of Viking raids. (They were apparently not interested in art collection or Christian scriptures at that time - just the cattle,etc.) Monk's Day sounds like a great thing. Where is this school located? I do illuminated manuscripts and have often volunteered in schools.

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  2. Drs. Fernette and Brock EideMay 11, 2008 at 5:51 PM

    We're in Washington State. It's Providence Classical Christian School.

    Do you have a website of your illuminated manuscripts?

    Thanks for your note!

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