One Hundred Miracles

From Jesus' dramatic raising of Lazarus to Saint Francis' courageous taming of the wolf of Gubbio, miracle stories pepper the pages of our greatest and oldest religious texts. These tales blend history and legend to express a deep human desire: To see divinity touch the everyday world.

In painting and sculpture, artists across the centuries have given that longing concrete form. This book offers a hundred masterpieces, each with its own dramatic story to tell, from the epic and exalted to the humble and private. Intimate paintings by anonymous icon painters and the Sienese masters of the 15th century Giotto and Raphael. Elijah's fiery chariot carries him to heaven in swirling gilded splendor; the resurrection is seen through the ethereal eyes of William Blake. The walls of the Ghiberti's Jericho tumble at the blast of trumpets; Rembrandt's Christ walks on water.

Drawing on spiritual classics such as The Bible, Gregory of Nyssa's The Life of Moses, Jacopo de Voragine's The Golden Legend, and various ancient liturgical poetry, each miracle story depicted is retold with simplicity. Author Christopher Calderhead's accessible and masterful commentary deepens and expands his readers' understanding of these wondrous narratives and accompanying artwork. Hope emerging from despair and the dangerous encounter with the divine are dueling themes that surface repeatedly throughout this volume.

Offering extraordinary stories through works of extraordinary beauty, One Hundred Miracles is a breathtaking journey into a world of wonder and mystery; hope and inspiration; elation and transformation.

Christopher Calderhead is an artist, writer, and Episcopal priest. He studied art history at Princeton and formal calligraphy at the Roehampton Institute in London. In 1998, he was elected to Fellowship in the English Society of Scribes and Illuminators and he has exhibited his work in England and in the United States. For the past few years, Christopher has been documenting the making of the Saint John's Bible, the first major manuscript Bible to be produced since the invention of printing. This project will soon be published as a book-The Making of the Saint John's Bible. He is also the associate art editor of Alphabet, the Journal of the Friends of Calligraphy. Christopher lives and works in New York City.