Monday before Easter

This year I have chosen interesting and sometime unique visual interpretations of the Gospel readings for Holy Week. For Monday before Easter the Gospel reading, Mark 14:1-72, is the longest during the cycle from Palm Sunday to Easter Day, covers four line on the opening page, plus four full pages, ending with two lines on the final page (1928 Book of Common Prayer, US Edition, 1943).

Upper panel: Jesus & His Disciples on the Mount of Olives; Lower panel: Arrest of Jesus, Peter Cutting Off the Ear of Malchus, illumination in egg tempera and gold on parchment, Gospels of Otto III, circa 998, Clm 4452, Image 96, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, Germany. CC-by-NC-SA 4.0.

The bottom panel in the illustration appears as Illustration No. 73 in the AIC Bookstore Publication, The Gospel of Mark: Annotated & Illustrated. The volume was discussed in the Blog post for February 5, A.D. 2026, linked from the Archives column at right. The book is one the twenty-two volumes available exclusively through my Amazon Author Central page. Additional information is found on the AIC Bookstore page. St. Peter’s action against Malchus, a servant of the High Priest, is mentioned only in Mark 14:47 and John 18:10. The Golden Gospels of Otto III was produced at the Reichenau Monastery, Reichenau, Germany, for the third of four Ottonian successors to Charlemagne as Holy Roman emperors. The team of artists at Reichenau were locally trained by other artists brought from Constantinople under the supervision of the monk Liuthar. Just a few years later they began a two decade-long effort to produce a fully illuminated edition of Revelation (details about the AIC Bookstore version are found on the AIC Bookstore page.

A scene from the Gospel reading for Tuesday before Easter, Mark 15:1-39, will be the subject of the next Blog post. Thank you for your interest and support. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!