Make your gift-giving extra special year round by buying gifts handmade by Catholic sisters, brothers, nuns, and monks. Did you know that you can purchase handmade rosaries, breads, cards, beer, coffee, blankets, prayer shawls, mustard, coffins, and more?! As religious women and men we truly live Saint Benedict's maxim, "Ora et labora" -- "Pray and labor." With every shawl or batch of beer we make, we pray our way through our work all the way to you the recipient.
Throughout the gift-giving season -- and indeed the whole year -- consider buying gifts that benefit the recipient and the religious communities who made the item. Chances are you'll feel gifted too!
In the listings below, you'll also find other items for sale such as books, medals, DVDs, and more that the nuns and monks don't actually make but the proceeds of which help the religious communities and their ministries.
Let us know if you have others you'd like us to add to the list -- must include handmade items by Catholic sisters, nuns, monks, or brothers and be accessible online.
Made with Love ... and Prayer
Here's a list compiled with help from the A Nun's Life Facebook community:
All Good Things - ceramic tiles, soaps and lotions, original cards and prints, peace cranes, prayer pillows, and more
Artaura - original artwork available on mugs, t-shirts, posters, necklaces, prints, and more
Brigittine Monks' Gourmet Confections - fudge and truffles
Cloister Shoppe - Seignadou Soaps, lip balms, candles, books, and more
For Heaven's Sake and Simply Divine Bakery - sisters' crafts, books, religious items, baked goods, and more
Gethsemani Farms - fruitcake, fudge, and cheese plus an Abbey Gift Shop with religious items, art, and more
Holy Spirit Monastery Gifts - food items, religious items, and more
Monastery Candy - caramel candies, chocolate-coated caramels, mint candies, chocolate hazelnut candies, truffles, and caramel sauce
Monastery Creations - candles, art, music, soap, and more
Monastery Fruitcake - fruitcake, truffles, and creamed honey
Monastery Greetings - food and drink items, books, CDs, cards, pet items, and more from a variety of abbeys, convents, monasteries, and hermitages; some popular items not found elsewhere:
- Trappist Preserves
- Praylines
- Chimay Trappist Ale
Monks' Bread - bread, spreads, soups, coffee, sauces, dressings, baked goods, mugs, and more
Mystic Monk Coffee - coffee, tea, drinkware, and more
NunBetter Chocolates and Custom Gift Baskets - chocolates and gift baskets
Our Lady of the Angels - Monastery Country Cheese
The Printery House - greeting cards, icons, holy cards, religious gifts, and more
Redwoods Monastery - Monastery Creamed Honey, greeting cards
Saint Meinrad Archabbey Gift Shop - prayer cards, rosaries, mugs, books, soaps, crosses, and more
Sinsinawa Bakery - Mound Bread and other breads, rolls, and fruitcake
Sisters of Carmel - religious goods including custom rosaries using the "build a custom rosary" page
Sophia Center - clay art, including Hearthstones
Subiaco Abbey - Monk Sauce and other food items, religious products, calligraphy, wood carvings, and more
Trappistine Quality Candy - candy and fudge as well as monastic products such as CDs, original icons and Chinese brush paintings, woolen throws, cards, and more
