To Julie Ann Brown, they are “visual scriptures, visual faith.”
Brown collects holy cards, simple expressions of faith that have been popular in the Roman Catholic Church for hundreds of years.
The cards – some smaller than a playing card, some larger – feature images of Jesus or saints, sometimes with a prayer printed on the back.
Ten years ago, the Oxnard, Calif., resident and marketing professor at Santa Barbara City College found a set of 300 holy cards in a Palmdale, Calif., antique shop. That discovery brought back memories of attending Mass as a child, when she would use dimes meant for the collection basket to buy cards depicting Jesus.
Always an aficionado of antiques, she fell into an old passion. Now with 40,000 religious cards stored throughout her house and garage, Brown is determined to preserve for posterity as many examples as possible of what she calls “people’s art.”
Her obsession is shared by a small, eclectic group of collectors from such places as New York, Ohio, Texas, Washington, D.C., and points west.
They scour eBay, religious relic shops and flea markets in France, Italy and Switzerland in hopes of fresh finds.
“They renew my spirit when I look at them,” said Lee Bozeman, a collector in Wichita Falls, Texas. “They increase my joy in my God and faith.”
For Bozeman, Brown and others, there is something too beautiful for words in the glowing eyes of a Jesus by early 20th century Italian artist Adolfo Simeone or the handcut paper lace on First Communion cards crafted in 19th century France.
“They are to Catholics what icons are to the Eastern Orthodox,” said Daniel Callahan, director of exhibitions at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington.
The growing interest in preserving the cards could be tied to increased curiosity about the spirituality and devotion of common people, said Todd Wilmot, a librarian at the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Pa. The library has a 1,000-card collection, mostly pulled from books donated by priests over the years.
“There’s a lot of interest in what the so-called ordinary person did – popular piety,” he said.
