The Saint John’s Bible Original Manuscript to be Bound
While the pages of The Saint John’s Bible were completed in 2011, they have since been left unbound. Donald Jackson, Artistic Director of The Saint John’s Bible, and the theologians at Saint John’s University, which commissioned the project, originally decided to wait several years before embarking on the binding process. This waiting period allowed the pages to exist in proper form for travelling exhibitions and for display on the Saint John’s University campus.
Now, fifteen years after Donald Jackson wrote the final “Amen” on vellum, it is time to do the inevitable–to bind The Saint John’s Bible.
The practice of binding books is centuries old and transcends convenience. Fundamentally, binding ensures longevity. The Saint John’s Bible is intentionally built with materials and craftsmanship to last thousands of years. Still in its youth, this work of art and scripture will traverse generations, ages, and eras, just like its medieval ancestors.
Binding was always the desired outcome for the project since the very beginning. At that time, more than 25 years ago, Donald Jackson and Saint John’s Abbey and University had consulted with and planned to secure the father of modern conservation binding, Christopher Clarkson, to bind the seven volumes of The Saint John’s Bible.
Saint John’s Abbey and University put Christopher’s involvement on hold once deciding to delay binding to allow for traveling exhibitions. Sadly, Christopher passed in 2017. His passing and the passing of other leaders who contributed greatly to The Saint John’s Bible, such as Fr. Michael Patella, greatly saddened the artistic team and served as a wake-up call. Though each of these wonderful humans’ legacies is surely cemented, their hands and minds are no longer with us. It was time to begin binding, while those closest to the project are here to facilitate it.
“Now is the time to start planning for the future of the Bible,” said Tim Ternes, Curator of The Saint John’s Bible, “when those of us who are fully vested in and knowledgeable about the project are still here.”
Work Has Begun
Therein lay another problem–who would be skilled enough to complete a project of this caliber?
“In the Middle Ages, undertaking a binding project like this would have been the norm with skilled craftpersons aplenty – today, it is totally countercultural,” said Ternes. “Highly-skilled conservation binders remain a rare thing in the modern age, and a commission as monumental and involved as The Saint John’s Bible is a massive and unheard-of undertaking for any individual.”
It took Ternes, Jackson, and studio manager Sarah Harris two years of deliberate study to determine the Bible’s binding team. Now, the team is assembled, and work has finally begun.
As envisioned from the beginning of the project, The Saint John’s Bible will be bound into seven distinct volumes. The artists binding the pages are taking a conservationist approach, opting to bind the volumes in plain oak boards and white, alum-tawed goatskin with a quarter leather spine. This approach is very similar to the rebound Winchester Bible, and to Christopher Clarkson’s original vision. The boards are currently being prepared using beautiful oak planks that have been stored for 25 years. In the words of the wood artist, “the grain looks sublime. The finest oak I have ever worked with.”
Ternes has delivered the first volume selected for binding. In October 2025, Harris, Ternes, Jackson, and the bookbinder examined every single page of the volume. “It lifted the spirits to experience them again, and they are looking even better than we had remembered,” said Jackson.
The Prophets volume will be the first to be bound. It was selected because it poses the fewest challenges of the seven volumes to bind, given that this volume has the least number of artworks that cross over the spine. The team estimates that it will take between five and six years to complete all seven volumes.
Another era of disciplined artistic and theological work begins, and the world waits.
The Saint John’s Bible: Ignite the Spiritual Imagination
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