Donald Jackson was the artistic director and led a team of calligraphers and artists in writing and illuminating the Bible at his scriptorium in Wales. The team was made up of skilled scribes, some who worked at the scriptorium and others who took pages of vellum back to their own studios. They met at regular intervals to hold together the weight, texture, and appearance of the script. The Bible also incorporated art works from several “guest artists” selected by Donald Jackson.
The Committee on Illumination and Text (CIT) was charged by Brother Dietrich Reinhart, then president of Saint John’s University, with oversight of the artistic content for The Saint John’s Bible. Comprised of members from the greater The Saint John’s Bible community, the CIT included theologians, artists, and scholars whose responsibility was to ensure that the art not only reflected sound Catholic theology, but also furthered theology’s intellectual and ecumenical enterprise. This it did by choosing the illuminations for The Saint John’s Bible and by writing detailed briefs for them. Donald Jackson and his team of artists in Wales then used these briefs to guide their interpretation and to enhance their creativity. From his scriptorium, Donald Jackson responded to the briefs through sketches emailed to the CIT gathered in Collegeville, where members sharing their respective expertise, reviewed, critiqued, and approved the images. The CIT continued in this task as well as other, project-related initiatives throughout the thirteen-year duration of the Bible’s production.
JOHANNA BECKER, OSB (1921-2012), a Benedictine potter, teacher, art historian, and Orientalist, combined these in the different facets of her word. As a teacher in the art department of the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, she taught both studio classes (primarily ceramics) and art history, focusing in later years on the arts of Asia. As a specialist in Asian ceramics, particularly those of seventeenth-century Japan, she did connoisseurship for public and private museums, published a book, Karatsu Ware, and wrote and lectured worldwide. Her art history classes benefitted from the years she lived in Japan and her time spent in the majority of Asian countries as an art researcher. Sister Johanna held a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Colorado, a Master of Fine Arts degree in studio art from Ohio State University, and a doctorate in art history from the University of Michigan. She was a member of the Monastery of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, Minnesota.
CHRISTOPHER CALDERHEAD, Scribe – Hebrew Script and Author, Illuminating the Word, is an educator, lettering artist, and graphic designer. He is the author of Calligraphy Studio and co-author with Holly Cohen, of The World Encyclopedia of Calligraphy. Since 2007, he has been the editor and designer of Lettering Arts Review, an internationally quarterly devoted to all aspects of fine lettering and calligraphy.
REBECCA CHERRY, Project Manager (2001-8) gained a Diploma in Business Studies and English & Communications in 1987, before working in London for variety of blue-chip companies. The last ten years of her career have been spent in the oil industry, supporting board-level directors at ARCO Oil & Gas Company. Rebecca has recently moved into the area with her husband, Stuart, and is delighted to be involved in a project which she feels is a very special and unique opportunity.
RACHEL COLLARD, Project Manager (2008-9), went to work behind the scenes at Glyndebourne Opera Festival is Sussex after graduating from Oxford University with a degree in Classics and Philosophy. This was the first step in a career in arts management which brought her to Wales in 2003 to run a contemporary opera company in Cardiff.
When she and her husband moved into the countryside in Monmouthshire, Rachel decided to look for work closer to home. She was absolutely thrilled to be offered the position at the Scriptorium where she found the quality and integrity of the work and the artistic vision and drive behind it to be inspirational.
HAZEL DOLBY, Artist Calligrapher, trained at Camberwell Art College, London and later at The Roehampton Institute with Ann Camp.Fellow of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators (FSSI), Hazel has been a Lecturer at the University Roehampton and Sunderland University, teaching art and drawn and painted lettering. She taught workshops in Europe and the United States. Now retired from from teaching Hazel continues her interest in lettering and painting. Her work is in various collections including the Fitzwillam Cambridge and the Craft Study Centre, Farnham, Surrey.
OLIVIA EDWARDS, Project Manager (1999-2001) spent two years at Art School (Wimbledon and Central St. Martin’s) before transferring her degree to Bristol, where she got a 2:1 in Humanities. On graduating, she worked for two Art Galleries and an Interior Designer, while living in London, as well as being involved with a Creative Writing Forum. She became interested in the creative healing arts and contemplative life. With a novelist friend, she made a three-part broadcast for BBC Radio’s “Seeds of Faith”, exploring Walking as an act of Pilgrimage. A move to South Wales, where she had grown up as a child, led her to the Rowan Tree, an ecumenical retreat centre for contemplative practice and The Saint John’s Bible, where she worked for the first few years of the project as PA to Donald Jackson. For the past 15 years she has been a freelance Shiatsu Therapist and Yoga Teacher and more recently has become a mother of two.
VIN GODIER, Computer Graphics (1997-2011) trained in Photography and Design and worked as a freelance Graphic Designer and Design Consultant. He also trained in Shiatsu and is a fully qualified Qi Gong Energy Field Therapist.
He lives in the Monmouth area and enjoys practicing Meditation, Qi Gong and Yoga, as well as playing music, mainly the guitar and spending much time tending his half acre organic garden. He has also spent his life studying philosophy and spirituality as a hobby.
Vin is now retired, but with the newfound time, and being tired of all the negativity around the world he wrote a book called The Message for a Positive Future. It is a broad ranging book that describes a vision of how the world could be through the lens of Integral philosophy and higher levels of consciousness and spirituality. It is available through Amazon in the US and the UK as well as independent book shops. He is now in the process of writing a second book.
JANE GRAYER, Project Manager (2009-11), trained as a Stage Manager at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (1984-6) and returned to her native Wales to work with a community and theatre in education company. For ten years she moved around the UK working in a many different theatres including The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, The Haymarket Theatre, Leicester and promenade productions in the park in Lancaster. Jane moved to London to be with her fiancé and found a job with Crisis, a national charity working with Homeless people. This led to seven happy years as a Reception Manager at the main center of SGI-UK (a Buddhist organization). Several jobs and two children later Jane was delighted to have returned to Wales with her family in time to be involved in the final chapter of this amazing story. She found the depth and beauty of each page awe inspiring and the production process exciting and inspirational.
NATHANAEL HAUSER, OSB, is an artist and iconographer who has worked in egg tempera, enamel, calligraphy, and mosaic. While teaching art history as an associate professor at Saint John’s University, he also taught calligraphy and the theology and practice of icon painting. Father Nathanael has undertaken commissions for churches, monastic communities, and private collections, creating icons, enameled crosses, calligraphy books, reliquaries, and Christmas créches. His work and papers have been exhibited and presented in the United States and Rome, Italy. Father Nathanael received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from St. John’s Seminary College in Camarillo, California. He received his STB from the Pontificio Ateneo di Sant’Anselmo, Rome, and his doctorate in Classical and Medieval Art and Archeology from the University of Minnesota.
SARAH HARRIS-RICHARDS, Studio Assistant (2002-5) and Studio Manager (2005-12), has lived in South Wales for 40 years since she left Essex where she was born in 1978. Following secondary school in Abergavenny, she attended the University of Portsmouth where she received a BA Hons in Art, Design & Media specializing in Illustration. After graduating in 2001, she moved back to Wales where she joined the Scriptorium Team in 2002 as Scriptorium Assistant and several years later as Studio Manager.
During The Saint John’s Bible project, Sarah was privileged to not only work in the studio directly with Donald and the team for most of the production of the original Bible, but also to work closely with the team creating the Heritage Edition alongside Donald.
As Studio Assistant, Sarah prepared and ruled the majority of the vellum and took care of the Bible pages once they had been written and illuminated before they left for Minnesota. She would keep the studio organized, cure goose quills, help with research and keep in touch with the calligraphers and artists that worked from their own homes and send them the vellum pages for them to work on when they were ready.
Sarah enjoyed working in such a wonderfully creative environment on such an extraordinary project, learning ancient and modern skills and techniques and working with such inspirational and talented people.
Over two decades years later, Sarah still works part time in the Scriptorium with Donald and Mabel. She is studying botanical illustration and enjoys working in horticulture. She lives in the Welsh valleys with her husband Gareth and their two cats, Eric & Figaro.
Aidan Hart is widely considered to be among the leading liturgical artists in the Western world, with commissioned works in over twenty-five countries, including with patriarchs, cathedrals, monasteries, and royalty. King Charles III commissioned Aidan to design and oversee the making of the embroidered Anointing Screen used at the coronation. He works in a wide range of media, including egg tempera, mosaic, fresco, stone and wood carving, and manuscript illumination.
A sought-after teacher of iconography, Aidan has written three books on icon painting, most recently the large work Festal Icons: History and Meaning, hailed as a ‘landmark’ and a study that ‘will be hard to surpass for many years to come’. He is director and tutor for the three-year part-time Icon Painting Certificate programme of The King’s Foundation School of Traditional Art. Aidan is also a Fellow of the Temenos Academy, and a Research Fellow of the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge. He is known for his role in helping to integrate into Western liturgical art the timeless principles embodied in the Byzantine tradition. To this end he often draws on the Romanesque and Anglo-Saxon periods for inspiration.
Aidan was born in England but grew up in New Zealand, where he was a professional sculptor. After becoming a member of the Orthodox Church he returned to Britain in 1983, and began working professionally as an iconographer. He lives in Shrewsbury with his wife and two grown children, his best icons yet.
SUE HUFTON, Scribe, was born in 1957 and initially trained as a teacher at Roehampton Institute where she began studying calligraphy as part of her degree. She returned to Digby Stuart College at Roehampton from 1983 – 1986 to take the full-time Certificate and Diploma courses in Calligraphy and Bookbinding.
In 1987 she was elected a Fellow of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators. She has taught calligraphy since 1985 in the UK and around the world and carried out commissioned work for private individuals and larger scale painted lettering work for churches. She has written many articles for journals and books as well as her own ‘Step-by-step Calligraphy’ first published in 1997. Her own work is in collections of the V&A, the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Crafts Study Centre.
Being a Scribe for The Saint John’s Bible developed her calligraphy practice which ultimately became much more than the physical making of letters with a quill on vellum, although this forms the bedrock of calligraphy. Five years of constant writing was valuable for all the work she has subsequently made. Her main focus now is in painted and woven lettering but the understanding and skills that lie behind her lettering work come directly from the discipline, critical evaluation and experience of being in The Saint John’s Bible Team. That also showed Sue how valuable and creative it can be to work in collaboration with others, something she has readily done since.
After many years of moving around the UK, Sue now lives overlooking the sea on the North East coast of England, a place of historical associations with calligraphy. The Lindisfarne Gospels were made not far away and even closer is the site of the historic early medieval scriptorium of Wearmouth and Jarrow where a number of large bibles were written and bound. Through her time on The Saint John’s Bible, she counts it a privilege to know something of the special experience of working in a Scriptorium and to know of the challenges and joys of writing out scripture. www.susanhufton.co.uk
THOMAS INGMIRE, Artist Calligrapher, is one of the forerunners of the modern western calligraphy movement. The uniqueness of Thomas Ingmire’s artwork lies in its relationship to the traditions of calligraphy. He has taught calligraphy since 1978 and has conducted workshops throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and several countries in Europe as well as in Japan and Hong Kong. Testimony to his talent as a craftsman was his election in 1977 to the English Society of Scribes and Illuminators. Thomas was the first American and first person outside of the United Kingdom to receive this honor.
His work has focused on the exploration of calligraphy as a fine arts medium and has evolved toa point where it is no longer calligraphy, but abstract calligraphic explorations which challenge concepts of visual language as an expressive medium. Work has been exhibited widely in the United States and can be found in the San Francisco Public Library’s Special Collections, The Newberry Library in Chicago, The Victoria Albert Museum in London, The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, as well as many other public and private collections throughout the world.
Website: https://www.thomasingmire.com/
Donald Jackson fell in love with curlicues and fancy letters when he was a child, and at 13 years old he gained a scholarship to art college where he specialized in writing, illuminating, lettering, and designer bookbinding. At the age of 20, after a post graduate year at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts, Jackson was appointed a Visiting Lecturer at Camberwell College of Art.
Within six years, he was appointed as a Scribe to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Crown Office at the House of Lords where he was responsible for the creation of official state documents, a positon he held for just shy or 50 years. During his time at the Crown Office, Donald and was chosen to take part in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s first international calligraphy show after the war.
Since 1969 Jackson lectured and taught extensively in the United States and elsewhere. In 1976/77 he was a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Art at California State University Los Angeles.
In 1981 he co-produced and presented the film series Alphabet; the Story of Writing, televised in over 30 countries, and authored the book The Story of Writing, since translated into six languages.
At Saint John’s University he co-founded, (with Jo White) The Calligraphy Connection, the first in the series of annual international calligraphy conferences still held each year in the US.
Between 1988 and 1991, his 30-year retrospective exhibition, Painting with Words, toured America, Europe, Scandinavia, and Hong Kong.
In 1998, he was engaged, by Saint John’s Abbey and University as Artistic Director of The Saint John’s Bible as well as the creation of the limited edition, full-sized, fine art Heritage Edition of The Saint John’s Bible. Donald is an elected Fellow and past chairman of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators and past Master of the 650-year-old Guild of Scriveners in the City of London.
As Senior Illuminator to her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II’s Crown Office, Jackson was awarded the medal of the Royal Victorian Order, (MVO) in 1985, and in 2016, he was invested with a Papal Knighthood in the Order of Saint Gregory the Great for services to religious art.
Jackson and his wife, Mabel live and work in the Scriptorium, a converted blacksmith’s workshop in Monmouth, Wales.
In 1991 Sally-Mae was elected Fellow of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators, after which she worked on a variety of commissions, taught, wrote articles and gave lectures in the UK and internationally before and after joining The Saint John’s Bible team.
At the age of sixty-five she retired and took up painting and pottery. Recently her love of letters and ceramics have come together in pieces that combine both and have successfully been exhibited. She still is asked to talk about The Saint John’s Bible.
Instagram: sallymaejosephartist
ROSANNE KELLER (1938-2012) was a sculptor whose work is on permanent display throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. In 1993 she was commissioned to create a ceramic Buddha and eight ritual vessels for the private meditation room of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Her sculpture can be seen at St. Deiniol’s Library and St. Bueno’s Jesuit Retreat Center in Wales; Saint John’s University and the St. Cloud Children’s Home in Minnesota; Exeter Cathedral; Taize, France; and on the campus of Texas Woman’s University. She published a book on pilgrimage, Pilgrim in Time, and a novel, A Summer All Her Own, as well as texts for literacy programs.
DAVID PAUL LANGE, OSB, a monk, artist, teacher, and hospital chaplain, is currently the Vocation Director for Saint John’s Abbey. He has a Bachelor’s degree from Saint Olaf College in Philosophy, a Master of Fine Arts degree in Studio Art from the University of Southern Illinois at Edwardsville, and a Master of Ministry degree from the Saint John’s School of Theology.
MARK L’ARGENT, Studio Assistant (2000-2), trained at Surrey University (Roehampton) graduating with honors in Calligraphy. He works to commission as a freelance lettering artist and calligrapher in London, undertaking commissions for both formal documents and contemporary art works, as well as teaching calligraphy and running occasional workshops nationally. Mark’s cross disciplinary work explores lettering in various forms and guises, which in addition to calligraphy, brings together typographic forms and painted lettering. It has been included in various exhibitions in the UK, culminating in a solo exhibition in London in 2011. He is an elected member of ‘The Letter Exchange’ London and is currently a practicing Fellow with Digswell Arts Trust based in Hertfordshire, England.
SUSAN LEIPER, Scribe, was introduced to calligraphy through Derick Pao in Hong Kong in the early 1980s. Derick had just returned from the US with his enthusiasm fired by Donald Jackson at the calligraphy convention in Minnesota in 1980. For Susie, the invitation to work on The Saint John’s Bible was as if life had come full circle.
Born and brought up in Glasgow, Susie studied French at the University of St Andrews and History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Whilst working as an editor of books on Chinese art and archaeology, she developed her calligraphy through attending workshops and completing the Advanced Training Scheme run by the Society of Scribes & Illuminators (SSI), of which she is now a fellow. Working on The Saint John’s Bible turned out to be her formal training ground.
Donald Jackson always assured Susie that the discipline of working on the bible would later give her the freedom to do anything. He was right. Since 2006 Susie has taken up painting as well as developing her calligraphic work. Painting has liberated her calligraphy, leading to large works on canvas and huge walls that combine lettering and abstract painted marks. Chinese landscape painting, where the emphasis is strongly on the mountain, has influenced her abstract mountain paintings, and the Chinese book is behind her one-off artist books.
Susie exhibits regularly and is represented by the Open Eye Gallery Edinburgh. Her work is held in many national and international collections including the National Library of Scotland, University of Edinburgh, Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, V&A Dundee, the British Museum and the Royal Collection. She lives and works in Edinburgh and still makes frequent trips to China.
Links:
https://susieleiper.com/slwp/
https://boundunbound.org.uk/collective/artists/susie-leiper/
https://www.art-scot.com/susie-leiper
www.susieleiper.com
CAROL MARRIN, Founding Director 2000 – 2008, holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and a Master’s degree from the University of St. Thomas. She became the director of The Saint John’s Bible in September 2000, after serving as the director of bookstores for Saint John’s University and College of Saint Benedict. While in the bookstores, she served on the Bible planning task force in early 1998, and then as chair of the Bible Council in 1998-1999. Her role as director included working closely with Donald Jackson, artistic director for the project and the CIT.
Carol’s strong gifts in working and inspiring others as well as organization were paramount as she took on the many roles and tasks of the Bible project. Her work included the day-to-day operations of the project along with planning for a BBC Bible documentary, the first exhibition of The Saint John’s Bible at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts along with its national and international tour. Her previous work in the university bookstores proved quite helpful as she managed publishing and licensing contracts for reproductions of The Saint John’s Bible as well as negotiating contracts with the artists. Carol’s leadership and skills made the work of all others in the project possible. Sadly, Carol passed away in 2011 just as the project was completed; she knew Donald Jackson had finished the final folios, but she did not have the chance to see them in person.
SUZANNE MOORE, Artist Calligrapher, is a Lettering Artist and Designer who combines contemporary vision with traditional scribal techniques on manuscript books, broadsides, graphic design and architectural interiors. Prior to relocating to Vashon Island, Suzanne led a team of 12 Lettering Artists at American Greetings in Cleveland, Ohio.
Subjects of Suzanne’s work include Sequoyah and the Cherokee writing system, mazes, the history and spirituality of gardening, non-Latin alphabets and the writing of artists on art and the creative process.
Her work is exhibited widely, and her manuscript books have been acquired for major public and private collections in the United States and Europe, including the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, the Library of Congress, The Houghton Library at Harvard University, and the James S. Copley Library, La Jolla, California. Website: https://suzannemoorefolios.com/
SISTER IRENE NOWELL, OSB, is a Benedictine of Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas with a background in Scripture. Sister Irene holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Mount St. Scholastica College, a master’s degree in theology from Saint John’s University, a master’s degree in German from Catholic University, and a doctorate in biblical studies from Catholic University. She is a former adjunct professor of Saint John’s University School of Theology, teaching Scripture both in the classroom and on the web and is a past president of the Catholic Biblical Association. Sister Irene taught at Mount St. Scholastica College/Benedictine College for twenty years, teaching German, English, and mostly Scripture.
She has written several books including, Sing a New Song: The Responsorial Psalm in the Sunday Liturgy, Women in the Old Testament, and Numbers (The Liturgical Press), and 101 Questions and Answers on Angels and Devils (Paulist Press), Pleading, Cursing, Praising: Conversing with God through the Psalms, a commentary on Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther (Liturgical Press), and Jonah, Tobit, Judith (Liturgical Press). She was an editor for Give Us This Day (August 2011 – 2020), was formerly on the editorial board of The Bible Today (1986-1999, 2004 – 2015) and has written regularly for other biblical and liturgical periodicals. Her most recent from Liturgical Press features biblical wisdom literature and her commentary on Esther for The New Jerome Biblical Commentary.
LINDA ORZECHOWSKI was the recording secretary for the Committee on Illumination and Text, assisting the group from 2005 through the project’s completion. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in theology from Saint Mary’s University in Winona.
Prior to working at Saint John’s University, Linda worked for seventeen years administering state and federal housing assistance with housing agencies in Duluth and Saint Cloud. Currently she is an Executive Assistant and Office Manager at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at Saint John’s University, providing support to HMML’s Executive Director and its Board of Directors, managing general office and finance systems, and assisting with programming events.
Professor Emeritus of Theology, Fr. Michael taught at the graduate School of Theology and Seminary at Saint John’s University. After completing his SSL from Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute in 1993, Fr. Michael earned his SSD in 1995 from École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem, Israel. Fr. Michael has served as Rector of the Saint John’s Seminary 2007-2024. He chaired the Committee on Illumination and Texts for The Saint John’s Bible and is the author of Word and Image: The Hermeneutics of The Saint John’s Bible. He has also written on Paul, Mark, angels and demons, and contributed the study of the Gospel of Luke for the Jerome Biblical Commentary, Fully Revised Edition.
BROTHER SIMON-HÒA PHAN, OSB holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in film and video from the California Institute of the Arts. His undergraduate studies were in philosophy, theology, and fine arts. He currently teaches design and video/film at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University and produces documentary films and video art.
IZZY PLUDWINSKI, Hebrew Scribe and Consultant, is a freelance calligrapher and calligraphy teacher. He studied as a Sofer STaM in Jerusalem and took his formal calligraphy training at London’s Roehampton Institute. His varied commissions have included calligraphy for two special edition Haggadot, work for the President’s Office of Israel, lettering for the Yakar Synagogue in Jerusalem and the design and publishing of a fine-art edition of the Song of Songs. He is currently writing a book on Hebrew Calligraphy as well as working on a large project writing the entire Pentateuch.
Though firmly entrenched in the world of traditional Judaica, Izzy’s calligraphic passion lies in finding ever-new expressive forms for the Hebrew Aleph-Bet – a path that has led him to anywhere from font development to Zen-influenced Abstract Hebrew Calligraphy.
He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and two beautiful daughters.
Website: www.impwriter.com
ALAN REED, OSB, is the curator of art collections at the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library. Brother Alan previously taught design and drawing in the joint art department of Saint John’s University and the College of St. Benedict for twenty-five years and, toward the end of that time, was chair of the department for six years. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint John’s University in studio art, a Master of Art Education from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a Master of Fine Art from the University of Chicago in studio art and art theory.
SALLY SARGENT, Proofreader (2000-2011) After gaining a BA Honors in English, Sally worked as a proofreader and copyeditor in book publishing in London – at Faber & Faber, Victor Gollancz and as senior sub-editor at Time-Life Books – until becoming a freelance in 1986, working from home.
BRIAN SIMPSON, Scribe and Greek Script, was born in 1933 in Leicestershire where he still lives and works. He was a fellow student
with Donald Jackson at the Central School of Arts & Crafts in London, in 1957/8, studying calligraphy with Irene Wellington and Mervyn Oliver. He worked as a lettering artist and graphic designer, but now concentrates on calligraphy and heraldic art.
DR. COLUMBA ANDREW STEWART is the executive director of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML). He holds a bachelor’s degree in history and literature from Harvard College, a master’s degree in religious studies from Yale University, and a doctorate in theology from the University of Oxford. Dr. Stewart is a professor of theology at Saint John’s University and served as Novice Master and Director of Monastic Formation for Saint John’s Abbey.
At HMML, he has overseen the digitization of hundreds of thousands of endangered manuscripts in the Middle East, South Asia, Africa, and Europe. With his background in theology and the history of the book, he has often been called on to speak about how The Saint John’s Bible has a place in the long Benedictine tradition of care for books and the creation of outstanding manuscripts. Dr. Stewart writes extensively on the history and spirituality of Christian monasticism, with several publications at both popular and scholarly levels, including Prayer and Community: the Benedictine Tradition and Cassian the Monk. In addition to his work at HMML, he has also taught courses in monastic studies and eastern Christianity at the Saint John’s School of Theology.
Angela trained at Roehampton Institute from 1985 until 1988, achieving a Diploma in Advanced Calligraphy. On leaving Roehampton, she was invited by Donald Jackson to work as his assistant at his studio in Wales, where she gained valuable experience.
After 3 years, Angela left to set up her own workshop locally, having fallen in love with the area. During this time she also taught calligraphy and had some of her work included in several publications and national exhibitions.
From 1995 and the birth of her daughter, Angela devoted herself to motherhood whilst occasionally undertaking private commissions. In Autumn 2002, she was delighted to join Donald and his team of scribes and artists on The Saint John’s Bible Project.
Since completion of the Bible pages, Angela has continued to work on private commissions including several large and complicated family trees.
Website: www.swancalligraphy.co.uk
Tim Ternes is the Director of The Saint John’s Bible at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. As Director, Tim worked closely with the artistic team in the creation of the original Bible folios and facilitated planning and communication between artists and commissioner. This collaboration has given him extensive behind-the-scenes knowledge and great stories about all aspects of The Saint John’s Bible project.
In addition to caring for the original folios of the Bible, Tim manages an international touring exhibition program and on-campus gallery programs for the Bible and museum rare book and art collections. He travels extensively throughout the country and internationally offering presentations and educational programs for The Saint John’s Bible and library collections. In short, Tim is the keeper of the pages and the keeper of the story.
Prior to working with The Saint John’s Bible, Tim worked as an elementary classroom teacher for sixteen years and as an independent language arts consultant to school districts around the country and internationally.
CHRIS TOMLIN, Collaborative Artist – Natural History, has always had a keen interest in the natural world and also in drawing and painting. He decided quite early in life that his ideal career could be created by merging the two subjects. After many years studying at different art colleges, he graduated from The Royal College of Art in London where he spent two years studying for a Master’s Degree in Natural History Illustration (1998-2000). He has so far been commissioned by a variety of publishers and organizations such as Oxford University Press and The National Trust.
Chris’ illustration career has also taken him to countries as far as Madagascar, where he spent time studying the endangered flora and fauna in the country’s tropical rainforests. Website: https://christomlinillustration.com/
Diane M. von Arx
7192 Queens Court NE
Otsego, MN 55330
612-743-6397 cell phone
lettering@dianevonarx.com
www.dianevonarx.com
In her career, Diane von Arx has been a letter-maker and designer, producing expressive lettering, developing corporate marks, and creating unique resolutions and documents of recognition. The first eight years of her career were spent in a package design studio in Minneapolis where she was responsible for original lettering on product packaging. A native Minnesotan, Diane has taught throughout the state for over 45 years, and for the past 40 years, she has taught workshops throughout the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Australia. In 2019 she gave workshops for the Schreibwerstadt Klingspor in Germany and a lecture and workshops for the European Lettering Institute in Brugge, Belgium.
In 1988 she worked with Professor Rutherford Aris in designing his publication Explicatio Formarum Litterarum for use at the 1990 international calligraphy conference at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, MN. Her work is published in the 22nd and 23rd Editions of the Speedball Textbook among many other calligraphic publications.
Diane was part of the artistic team for The Saint John’s Bible completing four original illuminations in the Wisdom Books volume. One of her major achievements was the design, lettering, illumination, and entire creation of The Book of Honor, the donor volume for The Saint John’s Bible. She has offered numerous lectures on her process in working on the Bible Project to audiences around the country. Diane also hand letters many of the unique dedication pages for the Heritage Edition sets and has hand-numbered each volume for the entire fine art edition.
For examples of her work see www.dianevonarx.com
Sister Susan Wood, SCL is a Sister of Charity of Leavenworth, Kansas and a professor of theology at Marquette University. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Saint Mary College in Leavenworth, KS, her Master of Arts in French from Middlebury College, and her PhD in systematic theology from Marquette University. She teaches courses on ecclesiology, Henri de Lubac, the nouvelle théologie, ecumenism, and sacramental theology, as well as more general courses in systematic theology. Her research interests have focused on the theology of ordained ministry, the ecclesial dimensions of sacramental theology, and the theology of Henri de Lubac.
Very active in ecumenical work, she serves on the U.S. Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue (1994-present), the North American Roman Catholic-Orthodox Theological Consultation (2005-present), the conversation between the Roman Catholic Church and the Baptist World Alliance (2006-2010), and the International Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue (2008-present). In addition to numerous articles, she has published One Baptism: Ecumenical Dimensions of the Doctrine of Baptism (The Liturgical Press, 2009), Spiritual Exegesis and the Church in the Theology of Henri de Lubac (Eerdmans, 1998), and Sacramental Orders (The Liturgical Press, 2000), translated into Spanish (Barcelona, 2008). She is the editor of Ordering the Baptismal Priesthood (The Liturgical Press, 2003) and co-editor, with Alberto Garcia, of Critical Issues in Ecclesiology: Essays in Honor of Carl. E. Braaten (Eerdmans, 2011).
ELLEN JOYCE is an Associate Professor of History in Beloit, Wisconsin, where she also Teaches for the Medieval Studies minor. She frequently teaches courses on medieval manuscripts and aspects of religious and intellectual history in the Middle Ages. Dr. Joyce was on the staff of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library and taught courses in Department of Theology at Saint John’s University during the early years of The Saint John’s Bible’s production; serving on the CIT was an inspiring and formative experience for her. She received her Bachelor’s degree in humanities from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and her Master’s and Ph.D. in medieval studies from the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, Canada.
Dr. Joyce continues to develop undergraduate courses that revolve around issues of reading, writing, and book production in pre-modern European History. From 2022-2024 she held an M. C. Lang Fellowship in Book History, Bibliography, and Humanities Teaching with Historical Sources from Rare Book School at the University of Virginia; the new course she developed on the history of the book in the age of the printing press makes use of rare books in Beloit College’s special collections. She is always happy to come back to HMML and to Collegeville to see the collections there and to visit The Saint John’s Bible gallery.