A new HMML website (HMMLVoobus.org) provides fast, basic access to a collection of manuscript photos created by Dr. Arthur Vööbus (1909–1988). During his career, Vööbus made more than 40 separate trips to the Middle East, creating the largest collection of Syriac manuscript images before the advent of digital imaging. This valuable photographic archive, known as the Vööbus Syriac Manuscript Collection, was held by Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago before being transferred to HMML. With HMMLVoobus.org, Vööbus' images are made available as soon as they are digitized—currently, 60,000+ photographs are online, more to come.

St. Bridget of Sweden has a surprisingly far-ranging literary afterlife. Bridget was a 14th-century Swedish noblewoman and mystic who became famous for her prophetic revelations, originally written down in Swedish and soon translated into Latin to reach a wider audience.

Two Bridgettine texts written in Syriac were recently identified among the manuscripts photographed by HMML and our partners in Iraq. Dr. James Walters, lead cataloger of Eastern Christian collections at HMML, takes a closer look. (Pictured: detail of "Saint Bridget of Sweden Receiving the Rule of Her Order," Agostino d'Antonio di Duccio, 1459.)