The picture on the front of this card depicts
a traditional image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
It is a photo of the stained glass window, situated above the organ,
in the former Bettendorf, Iowa, Carmelite Monastery chapel. In the
book, Carmel On the Mississippi, written by Sr. Therese McDonald,
O.C.D., in 1926, we find in the chapter on the Pater Noster Chapel
a description of this window and the suggestion that it is modeled
on an early icon that, according to legend, was painted by St. Luke.
Today, we would further recognize it as being part of the artistic
type, or group of Tenderness icon images, that show affection between
mother and child. The main theological theme of these images is the
Incarnation.
The chapel itself was first
erected in Davenport, Iowa, at 15th and Brady Street, in 1911. Later
the chapel was rebuilt on a bluff in Bettendorf, adjoining the monastery.
In 1975, the Bettendorf Monastery and Chapel were sold, and the Community
of Carmelite Sisters moved to Eldridge, Iowa, where they are presently
located. In 1993, the Sisters erected a new Chapel on the Eldridge
site.
