SFC Altar Bread
Department

THANK YOU!

HOSTING

THE

EUCHARIST

A Little History: Our Sisters began making altar breads for their own use in 1929. Very early in the history of the Hankinson convent the Sisters, using a circular iron made especially for baking the altar breads, began this work in a tiny room across from the present Vestment Department.

Over the next few years a number of local parish priests asked the Sisters to also provide the breads for their parishes. As more and more priests became acquainted with our breads, more orders were placed with the Sisters. To accommodate the increased demand a larger iron was purchased for baking the hosts.

Only the best flour was used for the mixture. The baking of hundreds of sheets of bread could be finished in a day because each sheet only took a few minutes to bake. On days set aside for cutting the sheets into round hosts, the crisp sheets were first placed into a steamer to soften them.

By 1961 the number of hosts needed each week grew to thousands. No longer able to keep up, the Sisters made the decision to purchase the needed breads from the Cavanaugh Company in Rhode Island, some 40 years after their small beginning.