For the last decade, Orthodox Christian nuns from The Convent of the Meeting of the Lord have made their living amongst the fields and farms of Snohomish County, near the rural community of Stanwood. Since being transplanted from the Holy Nativity Convent in Boston for the purpose of cultivating a monastic presence on the West Coast, Mothers Thecla, Mary, and Evdokia, who were later joined by Mother Anatolia and Sister Mariam, have spent much of their time focusing on daily prayer inside their ranch-style home, and striving to fulfill the commandments to love God with all their hearts, minds and souls, and their neighbor as themselves.
To support themselves, they needed to find something they could do at home between the daily services and prayers. The sisters chose candle making – a centuries-old traditionally monastic occupation – because of their previous experience with hand-dipping taper candles in Massachusetts. In 2001, they acquired some used equipment from a votive candle company that was going out of business in New Hampshire. A year was spent experimenting with the sisters’ new trade of making votives and tea lights. They first tried crafting paraffin candles that were to be fused with the scent of lavender as requested by a lavender farm in Sequim. The sisters quickly fell ill from this attempt, due to the exposure to the toxins in the paraffin fumes mixed with the anesthetizing agents in the lavender. A doctor told them it was similar to breathing in diesel exhaust. They later learned the American Lung Association warns that paraffin candles release nearly a dozen harmful chemicals when burned, two of which are carcinogenic, reducing air quality and damaging homes.
Still in possession of the candle-making equipment, they turned their attention to beeswax, which is what they had always preferred working with.
“Candle making with 100 percent pure beeswax allows us to offer a genuinely special product, that can be used as an offering to God, and in turn brings God’s gifts to us – joy, peace, light, and even health benefits for those that use them,” said Mother Thecla, the Convent’s abbess.
“Candles also require a little tending, a little care…like our souls,” she added with a smile.
Mother Evdokia said they were told it was impossible to make votives and tea lights using beeswax, which is one reason why it took so long for them to find the perfect wick.
“Whenever we asked anyone for advice, we ended up on another wild goose chase,” said Mother Evdokia.
After extensive study on the subject, and countless experiments, the Sisters settled on a self-trimming cotton wick that was free of lead and zinc, and worked well with their beeswax. Beeswax was chosen for its purity, the sweet honey smell, and for its health benefits, said Sister Mariam. Candles crafted by the nuns emit negative ions that help clean the air, and people suffering from allergies or sleep difficulties have told them they now breathe easier after burning the candles in their living spaces.
“It’s very important when purchasing beeswax candles, that you make sure that the label says ‘100% pure’, not just ‘pure’, since legally, ‘pure’ is defined as 51%,” Mother Thecla explained as she gave a tour of the nuns’ workshop.
About 60 pounds of honey are produced by the bees for every pound of beeswax. The sisters purchase their wax from a local beekeeper in Oso, as well as from other operations in California and Canada with whom they have worked closely for years. The sisters have wax samples sent to them ahead of time so they can be tested for scent, color, burnability and purity before agreeing to receive larger shipments. The chosen waxes are mixed into small 100 pound batches before retesting each batch. To prepare it for candle production, they melt the beeswax inside a water-jacketed tank in a small room built into their garage. Hot wax is poured into votive molds or small tea light cups, and a wick is carefully inserted into the cup’s center before the wax is allowed to firm. Their votive candles burn for at least 18 hours, said Mother Thecla. The tea lights can remain lit for over four hours.
Another reason the nuns chose candle making as their cottage industry is because the process can be done quietly and allows for prayer to remain the nuns’ primary focus. For this reason, and because of how the candles burn, when it was decided that they were going to open their own gift shop, they chose to call it Quiet Light Candles.
The sisters welcome guests to their store on Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and on other days by appointment. The sisters said they are especially pleased that more people are becoming aware of the fact that their business is open every Saturday throughout the year.
Visitors are encouraged to pour their own beeswax candle to take home as a gift from the convent while they peruse a variety of hundreds of different items crafted locally and abroad. Their popular beeswax soap, lip balm and hand lotion are made exclusively for Quiet Light Candles by an artisan living on Camano Island, using only wax supplied by the nuns and other all-natural ingredients. Tapers of varying lengths up to 24 inches and tiny birthday candles, as well as several sizes of pillars and interesting shapes of molded candles, add to the large array of 100 percent pure beeswax items offered for sale.
The nuns said their customers are often delighted at the variety of gifts and reasonable prices as they fill their baskets with raw and creamed honey, rock holders from Egypt, Brazil and Morocco, beautifully bound blank books, Christmas ornaments hand blown in Czechoslovakia and delicate Victorian miniature teacups.
Each year, the sisters put on their Christmas Festival Sale, beginning on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and ending the Saturday before Christmas Day. Large multi-colored chandeliers lit with dozens of tea lights illuminate the gift shop as guests enjoy carols along with complimentary tea, coffee and fresh cookies baked throughout the day. The festival is the nuns’ biggest event of the year, said Mother Anatolia, and hundreds of hours are spent preparing for the sale. The convent also participates in the community’s annual Harvest Jubilee festival in September.
The nuns hope that in the coming years more sisters will join them in their monastic lifestyle. As for Quiet Light Candles, Mother Mary said their goal is to find a Web developer who can make improvements to their Web site that will allow them to display and sell more of their items online. Their future, they said, rests in God’s hands. For more information, visit Quiet Light Candles at 29206 64th Ave. NW in Stanwood, go online at www.quietlightcandles.net or call 360-629-0285.
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