About
What is this collection?
Artist and educator, Sister Celestine Fischer, OSB (1872-1953), had practiced illustration and calligraphy since her school days at SS. Benedict and Scholastica Academy in Chicago, Illinois, when she took up the art of illuminating manuscripts at age 70. These works are composed of ink on paper and vellum. They all contain written messages in English or Latin, which was the liturgical language of the Catholic Church at the time Sister Celestine was active. The intricate illustrations and illuminations are meant to highlight the messages which come from Scripture or other sacred texts. Some pieces are originals while others are prints that her Benedictine community produced for use as greeting or prayer cards.
What is in it?
The collection contains 23 digital images of illuminations in the form of greeting cards, prayer cards, and devotional artwork. While Sister Celestine served in both Colorado and Chicago, these illuminations were produced while she lived at St. Scholastica Monastery in Chicago. The original illuminations pertain to Sister Celestine Fischer, OSB papers in the Benedictine Sisters of Chicago Archives. This collection represents a portion of the small illuminations produced by Sr. Celestine mostly in the decade of the 1940s. Additional examples turn up in the papers of other Sisters who received them as mementos on significant occasions such as the profession of vows or jubilees.
Why does it matter?
This collection represents Sister Celestine Fischer, OSB’s intent to revive the art of illumination which had flourished in the monasteries of Europe during the Middle Ages. In the early 1940s, Abbot Martin Veth, OSB of St. Benedict’s Monastery in Atchison, Kansas commissioned Sister Celestine to produce a work for the 1450th anniversary of the death of St. Benedict of Norcia. That resulted in a 14-page bound illuminated manuscript representing the eight canonical hours that Benedictines traditionally prayed and the liturgical texts for the mass of the death of St. Benedict. The small illuminations in this collection hint at that work. They emphasize the importance that the Liturgy of the Hours and praying with Scripture hold in the life of Benedictine women and men, and they provide a sense of community customs in mid-century United States convents. This collection of pieces from the end of Sister Celestine’s long life of creative works, demonstrates her commitment to establishing community traditions of beauty and reverence for monastic practices which continue to this day. It also provides an example of how immigrants contribute to the cultural and spiritual landscape of the United States by bringing their customs with them and adapting them to new circumstances. Sister Celestine, born in Grosswinternheim, Rhein, Hessen in 1872 and baptized with the name Susan, had studied painting as a child in Germany before moving to the United States in 1883 with her mother, four sisters and a brother. Their father died of tuberculosis shortly before they made the trip. She continued to develop her skills in art with the Benedictine Sisters at St. Joseph School and SS. Benedict and Scholastica Academy in Chicago and as a Sister she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Notre Dame. Her community entrusted her with the roles of art teacher, novice mistress, principal, chapel designer, and monastery artisan. Sister Celestine Fischer, OSB became a US citizen in 1921.
Benedictine Sisters of Chicago Archives
St. Scholastica Monastery
7430 N. Ridge Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60645
(773) 764-2413 ext. 203