How Much Church Candles Really Cost - And Does The Church Earn From Them

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Coming to a famous Orthodox monastery in Russia or attending an ordinary church "in the area", believers buy candles, icons, oil and other paraphernalia - as it should be. At the same time, prices in churches are very different, and in tourist places they even make you round your eyes …

Why is it free in Greece?

Several years ago, in the famous Bogolyubovsky monastery near Vladimir, I was most struck by expensive candles, it seems, from 40 rubles apiece. In the village itself, there is dirt, poverty, one traffic light across the Moscow-Kazan highway, and in the monastery there are flower beds with lush flowers and prices are sky-high.

It turned out that the locals had not come to the monastery church for a long time: it was too expensive, only tourists, pilgrims and the nuns themselves put candles in it. By the way, there was a property scandal in Bogolyubovo at that time: according to the law on the restitution of church heritage, the Bogolyubovsky monastery claimed and eventually received a building that was occupied by a hospital. Then the Vladimir-Suzdal diocese was going to arrange a hotel for pilgrims in this room, that is, in fact, to open a business.

In Moscow churches, the situation with prices for church paraphernalia is the same. The closer to the historical center, the higher the cost of icons, candles (especially large ones) and other things. Prices reach their climax in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which is called a giant trading floor. Various LLCs conduct commercial activities in it on a vast territory.

In Orthodox and Catholic churches in Western and Eastern Europe, candles are not sold; they, as a rule, are freely available. You can take it for free, if you are really poor, you can leave a donation, the size of which is determined by everyone himself or it is indicated next to the table on which the candles lie. In Russia, I personally saw free candles only in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra near Moscow. People took them and put money in the box, I did not notice the freeloaders. Why do we have a different tradition?

“Much depends on the degree of consciousness of believers,” explains Protodeacon and church scholar Andrei Kuraev. - In Greece they can afford it. In some Moscow churches they tried to transfer this experience and burned out. The money spent on the purchase of candles was not returned.

In the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, according to Kuraev, people go with a certain spiritual mood, so candles pay off for donations.

The priests say that the prices for church paraphernalia are determined independently by each parish. The paradox is that the figure drawn on a piece of paper is, in fact, a price tag, a fixed price, but the church considers this to be a donation. As the priests say, a temple is not a shop. And this is so: the ROC does not pay any taxes to the state treasury from its income - that is, donations.

Profit - 300%

Father Fyodor Vostrikov from "12 Chairs" not in vain cherished the dream of a candle factory in Samara. This business is super profitable. The cost price of a three-gram candle is about 20-40 kopecks. After all, this product does not consist of pure wax (the most expensive material for candle production is purchased from beekeepers at 250 rubles per kilogram), there may be only a few percent of it. They are sold to us in churches for 20-40 rubles. How do you like this promotion?

Most of the candles are made at the Sofrino factory. There are other industries in Russia as well. But the clergy are obliged to buy from Sofrino, which belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church, so that money does not flow out of the church's pocket into someone else's.

This largest production facility is located in the village of the same name in the Pushkin District of the Moscow Region. The factory produces icons, temple furniture, church clothes, icon cases, jewelry, printed materials and much more. The clergy buy candles there in bulk. A set of 100 small candles costs 630 rubles, that is, 6 rubles 30 kopecks apiece (which means that the average profit is 300%). The churches are obliged to share their donations with the dioceses (from 50 to 70 percent), and they, in turn, make contributions to the patriarchate.

One can judge the profits of Sofrino by the scale with which the birthday of its director Yevgeny Parkhaev was celebrated several years ago. It began with a service led by Patriarch Kirill and a banquet in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, continued in the European restaurant and ended with fireworks at the dacha of the hero of the occasion.

Besides Sofrino, there are also small workshops where candles are cast from cinders. In theory, the candle should be burned to the end, thereby symbolizing the sacrifice, but this is not allowed by the cute grandmothers-servants - they extinguish it earlier. These leftovers are sent to workshops, where the cost of candles is even lower.

Candles are, of course, the main income of the church, but there are also icons, books, incense, crosses, and they are also not cheap. In Greece, a handmade icon (10-12 centimeters high), carved on a piece of wood, costs 10-12 euros, in Russia for the same money you can buy only a color image pasted on a piece of wood. They even make money using holy water in our churches. By itself, it is free, but if you need a bottle, if you please share the rubles. For example, in the New Jerusalem Monastery, you will have to pay 30 rubles for a liter container, which, after use, will fly into the bucket. And try to ask: is it possible to make a smaller sacrifice? God be with you!