Less demand: nuns preparing altar breads haven’t been as busy because of national and local lockdowns. The demand for Eucharistic breads has collapsed since the Covid-19 pandemic forced the country into lockdown leading to a precarious financial situation for the nuns who rely on this income.
Since March, the country has experienced varying levels of restriction, with Masses being curtailed from late March to late June. While many churches remained open for private prayer, parishioners were prevented from attending Mass, with broadcasted streams taking their place.
A consequence of this has been an “absolute decimation” of demand for altar breads, in the words of Sr Fiachra Nutty of St Mary’s Abbey in Co. Waterford.
The abbey in Glencairn is one of Ireland’s primary producers of Eucharistic bread, a monastic activity which provides a source of income to the community of contemplatives living there.
Guillotine
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Sr Fiachra spoke of the dramatic fall in demand since lockdown was imposed and the Faithful were kept from the pews. “The guillotine just dropped,” she said, when the churches closed Mass to the public.
In particular, the closure of the cathedrals impacted the quantity of altar breads they were delivering, as cathedrals would previously have hosted large crowds for public Masses.
Standard orders for altar breads once stood at “anywhere from 5,000, to 10,000, to 15,000”, but has since dried up to just a handful.
Sr Fiachra estimated that the income they draw from their altar bread production has fallen by “possibly 80%”.
Similar sentiments were expressed by Sr Lucy Conway of the Redemptoristine Monastery of St Alphonsus in Drumcondra.
The largest producer of Eucharistic breads in Ireland, they’ve also seen a severe decrease in demand for the service.
“Annually, we’d produce around 25 million peoples’ hosts a year,” says Sr Lucy.
“We’d fulfil 30 to 40 orders a day,” she said. That was up until mid-March, when lockdown began to descend upon the country.
Schedule
In contrast to the standard order schedule, last week saw just 10 orders of Eucharistic bread leave the monastery.
Whereas orders were regularly being placed for 10,000 – 20,000 breads, recent demand has seen sparse orders placed for 1,000-2,000 instead.
Finding themselves in a similar situation to St Mary’s Abbey, the Redemptoristine sisters have seen the income they source from their altar bread plummet by around 75%, according to Sr Lucy.
There are tentative signs of growth on the horizon, however, as people have cautiously begun to return to Mass in limited numbers.
“The orders of altar breads are beginning to go up again,” Sr Lucy revealed.
Whereas days passed without an order during the depths of the lockdown, there is now a steady order a day being sent out since the churches re-opened their doors for public Masses, she explained.
This is helping to ease the financial pressure on the monastery.
The sisters employ a team of six staff for their altar bread production, and the pandemic saw them forced to turn to the Government to subsidise four of them.
However, the difficulties both monasteries face is being met with optimism in both Dublin and Waterford, with Sr Lucy commenting on the “wonderful, peaceful time” the quiet of the pandemic afforded them, while Sr Fiachra referred to the opportunity to reconnect with others as a “ministry in itself”.