Prayer book “Rette deine Seele!” (Save Your Soul), Klagenfurt, 1898.
At first glance, this small pocket prayer book appears to be just an old devotional volume – yet hidden within its leather cover lies a bullet hole that pierced almost the entire book, silently speaking of its remarkable history and most likely of a miracle it once created.
If we turn back more than a century, to the time of World War I, such books – especially Bibles and prayer books – were often given by families to soldiers departing for war. They were gifted as spiritual protection and as a reminder of home. It is now well known that soldiers themselves also wished to keep such books close, believing they could shield them from death. For that reason, these volumes were frequently carried in inner breast pockets, as lucky charms. The presented prayer book is almost certainly one of those rare examples of faith and fortune intertwined, a witness to the small miracles these books once worked in the midst of war.
This prayer book stands as a striking symbol of survival, and because of its history and the story it carries, it represents an exceptional historical artifact.
Dimensions: 14 × 9 × 3 cm
Weight: 0,15 kg
The prayer book is well preserved.
