In the Christian tradition, holy cards or prayer cards are small, devotional pictures for the use of the faithful that usually depict a religious scene or a saint in an image about the size of a playing card. The reverse typically contains a prayer, some of which promise an indulgence for its recitation. The circulation of these cards is an important part of the visual folk culture of Roman Catholics, and in modern times, prayer cards have also become popular among Orthodox Christians and Protestant Christians, although with the latter, biblical themes are emphasized within them. Uses Most cards are circulated to assist the veneration of the saints and images they bear. Special holy cards are printed for Catholics to be distributed at funerals by the family of the deceased that include the name and usually dates of birth and death of the deceased. These are a particular type of the in memoriam cards, which can also record other events such as baptisms, confirmations, ordinations, or the making of religious vows. At the end of the nineteenth century, some Protestants also produced similar images of their own. They produced "Bible cards" or "Sunday school cards", with lithographed illustrations depicting Bible stories and parables, more modern scenes of religious life or prayer, or sometimes just a Biblical text illuminated by calligraphy; these were linked to Biblical passages that related to the image. The reverse typically held a sermonette instead of a prayer. Imagery here was always the servant of text, and as such these Protestant cards tended to be replaced by tracts that emphasized message instead of imagery, and were illustrated with cartoon-like images if they were illustrated at all. History Old master prints Old master prints, nearly all on religious subjects, served many of the same functions as holy cards, especially the cheaper woodcuts; the earliest dated surviving example is from 1423, probably from southern Germany, and depicts Saint Christopher, with handcolouring, it is found as part of the binding of a manuscript of the Laus Virginis (1417) which belongs to the John Rylands Library, Manchester. Later engraving or etching were more commonly used. Some had elaborate borders of paper lace surrounding the images; these were called dévotes dentelles in France. One use of such cards is illustrated in an early 15th-c painting of the Annunciation by Robert Campin, which stages the event in a bourgeois home; above the fireplace,