The age of religious cards can be reliably determined if the card is studied carefully enough, but unfortunately not much research has been done to build any definitive guidelines for determining the age of cards. Information printed or written on the card such as copyright dates, imprimaturs, funerary information, written dates on the front or backs of cards or any other hints of dates are helpful to establish some time frame for cards. The printing processes, paper and styles are also excellent indicators. The lacy border cards are invariably pre-1900 and reflective of the Victorian style of the day. Notable publishers of the finer die-cut lace cards are Bouassee Lebel and L. Turgis of Paris, France; Benziger of Einsiedeln, Switzerland and Verlag von Carl Mayer, and Verlag von Serz both of Nurnberg, Germany. Some of the finest lace cards have swirling cuts reaching deep into the card and surrounding the image. (Pl. 22-24)

Some earlier Catholic cards have printed date information that make it difficult to determine their age. Often holy cards were printed with the official date on which indulgences were granted by the Pope for those who follow certain practices, such as reciting prayers or novenas printed on the cards. The doctrine and practice of indulgences is linked to the sacrament of Penance. It is a remission of temporal punishment on earth in quantities of days compared to the relative number of days of pennance associated with sins in the early church.   A hundred days indulgence does not mean that one is let off a hundred days in purgatory.  It is interesting to compare the power or value of the indulgences found in the cards in terms of the number of days they are worth. These indulgence dates do not necessarily reflect when the card was published. However, it can be safely assumed that the card was not published any earlier than the indulgence date. (Pl. ?)

Publisher marks can be helpful tools, but in some cases may be absent, cryptic or misleading.  Case in point are the cards produced by Bertarelli (1863-1938), who founded an enterprise which soon became one of the most important printers in Europe specializing in chromolithography.  His holy cards typically have no trademark and bear only a number.  As far as is known his cards were sold in lots of 100 and only the first of them had the mark "Stab. A. Bertarelli." On items printed for other customers, however, all the cards may have the customer's marks.  For instance when he began to print for the Santa Lega Eucaristica he produced cards with the mark of the Barefoot Carmelitan Brothers (Ordo Fratrum Discalceatorum B.M.V. de Monte Carmelo) which is a crown above a shield with a cross on Mount Carmel.  Bertarelli printed many other cards during the life of his firm - the SLE was only a good customer.  Later in the thirties his company had difficulties and was bought by SLE which had also fallen on hard times. Achille Bertarelli was an outstanding collector of popular prints and there is a museum in his name. (Leuthold, 1999)
 

"We d him during life, let us not forget him in death."
                                                                                     St. Ambrose

"I call for the prayers of all those who have known me, of all those who d me."
                                                                                     St. Ephrem
 

"O Jesus! be on this day a token of my gratitude; bless those who led me to thy holy altar."

                                                                              (St.) Fr. Julian Eyemard

“Some feel that in the years after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), Catholic holy cards suffered. Calligraphic quotations from Scripture and symbols such as the fish and chi rho were offered in place of the more old fashioned images that had proved to be so popular.” (Bricker, 1989) (Image 31) Of course, some feel today that those old fashioned l'art St. Sulpice cards portraying Germanic looking Jesus's with blond hair and rosy lips seem too delicate and ethereal, in contrast to the photographic realism that we're accustomed to.

One critic of the l'art St. Sulpice style is Fr. James Martin, S.J. who lamented when he was shown a traditional prayer card of St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuit order, "There was Ignatius seated at a desk, quill pen in hand, looking as if the slightest wind might topple him. This is Ignatius? The soldier who underwent rigorous physical and spiritual trials, who tramped all over the Europe, and who endured the Inquisition?  Well, that's what the card said. Yet, there he sat--rouged cheeks, doe eyes, and an insipid expression." (Martin, 1993)

The contrast between l'art St. Sulpice and l'art sacre is discussed quite thoroughly in Chapter 7 "Christian Kitsch and the Rhetoric of Bad Taste" in Colleen McDannell's book Material Christianity. (McDannell, 1995). The full range of trends and artistic expressions of what is sacred is represented in holy cards.

The lessened importance and practice of exchanging cards and consequently the decreased production of cards seems to parallel the social changes of the 1960's.  Always relatively easy to date and collect the Protestant Bible Lesson cards published by Providence Litho. Co.did not continue much past 1960, David C. Cook stopped publishing the weekly cards in 1969 and Standard Publishing in 1973.

One influence in the Catholic Church that seems to have stifled any further modern cards featuring saints images is the confusion surrounding the reorganization of the liturgical year and calendar for the Roman Rite approved by Pope Paul VI in the 1969 document motu proprio Paschalis mysterii. The impression left with many Catholics was that the church was disowning the likes of St. Barbara, St. Christopher, St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Ursula.

Actually the church was not ruling out the legitimacy of any saints but merely relegated to another category (not included in the revised calendar) those saints for whom little remains certain about them other than their names. Take St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, as a prime example. Much of what is known about Christopher is considered pious legend so he was removed from the calendar to join countless other saints whose feasts are not universally celebrated.

The most common images of the saints like those of Italian printers Fratelli Bonella of Milan have not varied in style since the early 60's.  It wasn't until artist Robert Lentz's work became popular in the 1980's that anything new had come along in the portrayal of saints. In recent years Catholics and Protestants alike have been drawn to the very traditional stylized religious art of the Eastern church known as icons, with lighted, shadowless, elongated features and gilded halos. Modern iconographers like Robert Lentz and William Hart McNichols have explored more contemporary subjects and symbols in their art. Besides larger plaque, photograph and poster formats these artists offer their images as holy cards as well.

Vinyl covered and laminated cards have been in distribution since the 1960's through present.  The latest variation, though not truly classified as holy cards, is religious images produced with magnetic backings.  Religious images have now entered the refrigerator magnet market!

A distinctly computer age era of cards are now available in an electronic digital format. One California firm has drawn on holy card art of the last century to create an “Inspirational Holy Card Collection” on a three volume set of CD-rom’s. The images have been re-mastered from original holy cards. These high resolution images are ready to be brought to life once again with a home or commercial printer.   Various Catholic internet web sites allow the computer users to send e-mail holy cards.  An image is selected along with a verse and then sent via e-mail to a friend anywhere in the world.

Artistic styles, copyright dates, printed information are all vital indicators of a card's age, but don't forget how important and helpful it is to obtain as much information about the previous owner as possible, especially in order to date cards that have no markings. Some knowledge of the publishers and the span of operation for certain publishers who've printed cards and since ceased operation can be very helpful in determining the age of cards also. A list of publishers and general dates of operation is included in the appendix.