A Brief History of Prayer Cards
Before the invention of the printing press credited to Johannes Gutenberg in 1450, Prayer Cards also know as Holy Cards were individually handcrafted by Catholics. These cards contained a depiction of a religious subject or place and were crafted using wood with hand-colouring. In addition to the obvious reason of using such cards for prayer, they were also put on notarized forms to show legitimacy and put into trunks to ward off thieves.
During this period Prayer Cards were handed out by priests and the content of the cards required approval from a bishop.
The oldest surviving Prayer Card is of St. Christopher and dates back to 1423.
With the invention of the printing press and then the invention of lithography in 1796 by Alois Senefelder, Prayer Cards were able to be mass produced. Prayer Cards were most commonly made approximately the size of a playing card and eventually became common place at Church services including baptisms, communions, marriages and funerals.
In the 1900’s when funeral homes started to become more modernized as we know them today, funeral professionals began to purchase Prayer Cards from vendors and then add the name of the deceased along with his or her dates of birth and death to the cards with type setting and thermal printing devices or typewriters. These cards were known as In memoriam cards and were handed out at funeral services and wakes.
As technology progressed and desktop publishing became available in the 1980’s, more Prayer Card options became available …
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