The Marian Library is located on the seventh floor of the Roesch Library at the University of Dayton.
Admission is free and open to the public.
Though the Belorussian tradition of carving icons in wood dates back eight centuries, original examples are rare, says the Rev. Johann Roten, S.M., director of the International Marian Research Institute. The Russian Orthodox Church outlawed their display in churches in 1722 and ordered all carved icons burned in 1832. When the Poland-born Solowianiuk revived the Eastern European art form in the early 1980s, he found it difficult to market his work, as the Orthodox clergy in Eastern Europe today upholds the orders of 1722 and 1832. He did, though, find a market for his icons in Western European churches in the 1980s. In 1990, Solowianiuk came to the United States, where he has carved icons for churches in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, duplicating traditional works using bass wood, hand tools, dyes and finishes.