Free to use stock images of antique Catholic items created hundreds of years ago such as: statues, holy books, chalices, crosses, and more.
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Catholics believe that the consecrated bread is literally the body of Christ. The Host thus became an object of veneration, and containers were made in which to keep or display it to the faithful. The monstrance...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This reliquary uses the form of a miniature Gothic tower. It makes an elaborate architectural frame for a transparent rock-crystal vessel holding a relic that is identified as a tooth of Saint John the Baptist by...
The son of God is represented seated on heaven's throne, with his right hand raised, palm faced outward with three fingers extended. This gesture communicated a particular message to medieval Catholics in Western Europe. It is part of an iconographic pose called in Latin the "Maiestas Domini,...
A monstrance is used to display the consecrated host during the Blessed Sacrament in a Roman Catholic church or in a procession for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. This example, or a nearly identical one, was part of an award winning altar service shown by the firm of Poussielgue-Rusand at...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Gian Lorenzo Bernini was just twenty-three years old when he received one of his first commissions to make a full-sized bust of Pope Paul V, the recently deceased uncle of his most important patron, Cardinal Scipione...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This cross was originally mounted on a tall pole and carried in religious processions. Therefore, the figures on each side are almost identical. In the center is Christ crucified. Looking on from the elaborate terminals at...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! A reliquary (also referred to as a shrine) is a container for relics. Relics may be physical remains of saints, such as bones, pieces of clothing, or some object associated with saints or other religious figures....
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The striking impression of this figure is the vivid representation of suffering. The sculpture captures the moment after Christ’s death: the drooping head on a frail neck is a mask of agony. The eyes are...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! A blessing cross is a hand cross held by a priest or bishop in Eastern Christianity when he gives a benediction. It is often made of precious metal and may be adorned with enamelwork, and precious...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Creating a book of hours was an arduous and costly process. These books were made from vellum, animal skins that were laboriously prepared in a multistep process. The texts were written with a quill pen and...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This impressively carved and distinctively conceived Virgin and Child is, on stylistic grounds, probably by the hand of Gil de Siloé or a member of his important workshop. A sculptor of northern origin, Siloé was employed...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The chalice and paten—the most important liturgical vessels—are used at the altar by the priest for the consecration of the Eucharistic bread and wine during the celebration of the mass. This chalice survives with...
