2026 Ordo Kalendar

2026 Calendar
PRE ORDER NOW--SHIPPING WILL BEGIN THE FIRST WEEK OF NOVEMBER

10 x 12 & 5/8 inches
12 pages with hole punch for hanging

This year’s Kalendar features historiated initials from the medieval manuscripts collection in the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA). These large, decorated letters are primarily found in the liturgical and devotional books that were central to medieval religious life and contain narrative scenes of saints’ lives, stories from the Bible, and religious services that relate to the surrounding text.

Production of these initials was a painstaking process, and the final step in the collaborative effort that was a hallmark of medieval bookmaking. After a scribe copied the text onto vellum (most often sheep or calfskin), the page would be given to an illuminator, who applied bright pigments and gold leaf to enliven the initials and margin. Sometimes these miniature works of art were produced by an individual; others were the products of a team of artists or a school, but either way, these historiated initials had a purpose beyond mere decoration. They served to both illustrate the content and act as visual aids for navigating what were often long and complex texts. 

The CMA's collection features examples excised from missals (containing the texts for the Mass), psalters and breviaries (psalms, prayers and readings for the Divine Office), and graduals and antiphonaries (choir books for chanted services). These works are a testament to the importance our ancestors placed on “the beauty of holiness,” a tradition the Churches of the G-3 continue even today.