New York City Library Showcases the Blessed Sacrament
Scripture says, when finding a treasure, some people sell everything and buy it.
A treasure not for sale but for contemplation is a small exhibit of medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts at the
Morgan Library in New York, 14 blocks from St. Patricks Cathedral.
It is a radiant message about the Eucharist as the central sacrament of the Catholic faith and its effect on life and art during medieval times.
I happened to arrive as the art historian, Miriam Wasserman, was beginning a tour of Illuminating Faith: The Eucharist in Medieval Life and Art, a collection that included illuminated missals, books of hours, breviaries and other items that are part of the vast holdings of the Morgan. She gave a lively and informed presentation, telling us at the end that she was Jewish. She said the exhibition designers had the help of a theologian from Fordham University regarding the history and theology of the Eucharist. She did a superb job.
Hand-Drawn Beauty
The exhibit is well organized in a small room, with most of the objects in special glass cases. The prayer books and missals are opened to pages of exquisite beauty. They were decorated with hand-drawn pictures of the Consecration, with vibrant colors made from the deep blue of lapus lazuli or the green of malachite. Gold leaf highlights the pictures and the ornate borders around the pages, giving the images even 700 years later an otherworldly glow.
