Altar bread was once made by hundreds of communities of nuns across the US. Now, a for-profit company controls nearly the entire market.
How Nuns Got Squeezed Out Of The Communion Wafer Business
Nuns have been entrepreneurs since long before Mark Cuban ever said “I’m out.”
They started hospitals and schools in the 19th century, engaging in the labor market when most women were barred from working outside the home. In recent years, nuns have done everything from breed horses to sling pizzas.
They also played an integral role in developing Communion wafers, a product that they, along with the rest of the Roman Catholic Church, believe is turned into the literal body of Christ during Mass.
The wafers used to be almost entirely produced by nuns running small-scale operations.
- The Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration started producing them in 1910. Eventually, some weeks, nuns there churned out 2m+ wafers, shipping them to clients ranging from parishes to prisons to Princess Cruise Lines.
But today it’s a different story.
Now, almost every communion wafer comes from the for-profit Cavanagh Company, America’s altar-bread monopoly.
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