With Abundant Thanks

Our congregation extends our heartfelt thanks to Jayne and Al Hilde Jr., their sons and the WestWings Family Foundation  whose vision and generosity made possible the wonderful gift of  The Saint John’s Bible, Heritage Edition.

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, Saint John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota commissioned a work of art that illuminates the Word of God for a new millennium and designed to ignite the spiritual imagination of believers throughout the world. 

The Saint John’s Bible is the first handwritten, monumental, illuminated Bible commissioned by a Benedictine monastery in the modern era. It was created by scribes in a Scriptorium in Wales under the artistic direction of Donald Jackson, one of the world’s foremost calligraphers and the Senior Scribe to the Crown Office of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Bible was completed in 2011, and its permanent home is the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at Saint John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota. 

The Saint John’s Bible incorporates many of the characteristics of its medieval predecessors: it was written on vellum, using quills, natural handmade inks, hand ground pigments and gild such as gold leaf, silver leaf and platinum. And yet, it employs a modern English translation (NRSV) as well as contemporary scripts and illumination.