A public-domain library of Catholic texts and art

Prayers, the saints, dogmatic sources, mystical and ascetical works, the rosary, the hymns, and the plates that belong with them — typeset and free to read, with nothing behind a paywall and nothing added that wasn’t there.

Browse the Collections Enter the Gallery

The Immaculate Conception, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 1512 — public domain — Raphael, The Sistine Madonna, 1512 — public domain

The Sermon on the Mount, Carl Bloch, 1877 — public domain — Carl Bloch, The Sermon on the Mount, 1877 — public domain

The Archangel Michael, Guido Reni, 1636 — public domain — Guido Reni, The Archangel Michael, 1636 — public domain

What the library holds

Restored works, all in the public domain.

Mystical Theology Divine Mysticism Canon J. Ribet’s La Mystique Divine in four volumes — contemplation, the mystical phenomena, the diabolical counterfeits, and the human analogies.

Christ Crucified, Velázquez — public domain

Ascetical Doctrine The Practice of Humility Leo XIII’s treatise in sixty counsels, with St. Augustine’s sermon on the fear of God and a gathering of the Fathers on humility.

The Return of the Prodigal Son, Rembrandt — public domain

Devotional Series Humility: The 60-Day Devotional The treatise taken a lesson a day — each with the text, a scripture anchor, a reflection and a daily challenge, from the Vaughan translation of 1888.

Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, Jan van Eyck — public domain

Dogmatic Theology The Sources of Catholic Dogma Denzinger’s Enchiridion Symbolorum, in Deferrari’s translation — the Church’s dogmatic definitions from the Apostles’ Creed to Pius XII, in six parts.

The Angelus, Jean-François Millet — public domain

Devotion A Book of Prayers The daily prayers, the Marian antiphons and the prayers for protection — with a small gathering of household petitions for skunks, lost keys, and the internet gone dark.

The Annunciation, Fra Angelico — public domain

Devotion The Rosary All twenty mysteries, each with its plate, its scripture and a short meditation — and every set laid out in the order you actually pray it, from the sign of the cross to the closing prayer.

Sacred art

Restored plates, not stock photos.

Every reproduction is matted like a plate tipped into a fine edition — a warm archival grade behind a quiet border, credited to its painter. Raphael, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Titian, El Greco, van Eyck: forty works, centuries out of copyright, chosen to sit beside the texts they illuminate.

Enter the Gallery

The Sistine Madonna, Raphael, 1512 — public domain — Raphael, The Sistine Madonna, 1512 — public domain

The Supper at Emmaus, Caravaggio, 1601 — public domain — Caravaggio, The Supper at Emmaus, 1601 — public domain

The Assumption of the Virgin, Titian, 1516–18 — public domain — Titian, The Assumption of the Virgin, 1516–18 — public domain

Saint George and the Dragon, Raphael, c. 1506 — public domain — Raphael, Saint George and the Dragon, c. 1506 — public domain

“Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

— St. Augustine, Confessions, Book I

Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt, c. 1668 — public domain — Rembrandt, The Return of the Prodigal Son, c. 1668 — public domain

About

A quiet, permanent home for old books.

The texts and images here are in the public domain — free to read, copy and reprint. The site design and typesetting are ours. No advertising runs on Breviarium.ink and none ever will.