Word: beeswaxed
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...seven generations the Hidalgos have been encausticists. Several Catholic churches in Mexico own today wax figures molded by Luis Hidalgo's great-great-grandfather. Luis Hidalgo uses no molds, carves directly in blocks of beeswax without any preliminary studies, guards a secret process that enables the figures, once carved, to resist a heat of 110° Fahrenheit without melting. All that he will say about it is that it is a mixture of four acids...
...Before carnauba wax was first used commercially about 50 years ago beeswax was used for polishes. Today most beeswax goes into Catholic altar candles, which must be at least 51% beeswax to meet an old Church law based on the supposed virginity of bees. No such rule governs votive candles, sold in great numbers to the faithful. These may be made of ordinary stearic acid and paraffin...
...Schwartz and Peck found the manufacturers of adhesive tape as secretive about the ingredients and methods of manufacture as they are about the yearly yardage and dollar value of their plaster. Eventually the following list of ingredients became clear: rubber, rosin. "Burgundy" pitch, olibanum, beeswax, zinc oxide, anhydrous lanolin, starch, orris root...
...shrines throughout the Roman Catholic world, millions of silent, smoky candles burn out their brief lives. In sum they make a mighty flame of devotion. Singly, each is to some inarticulate worshipper a symbol of prayer, sacrifice, joy or sorrow. Compounded not of tears or smiles but of beeswax, tallow, paraffin, a candle is a concrete thing. It costs money. Traditional practice in Europe (and lately in some U. S. dioceses) is to set a box of candles by every shrine, let the faithful help themselves and leave a small offering in return. Last week this practice was banned...
...candles in church is older than the church itself. Liturgical candles are traditionally of beeswax, for bees were once supposed to be virgin. The great paschal candle typifies Christ's flesh, its wick His soul, its flame the all-absorbing Divinity. On Candlemas Day (Feast of the Purification, Feb. 2) there is a special ceremony for blessing candles. A burning candle is placed in the hand of a person at baptism, and as Death comes...