Blessings of Bees and Silkworms

by Rev. Cav. William Rock, FSSP, SMOCSG

As long-time readers of the Missive may recall, a previous article discussed how candles can be seen as representing Our Lord with the body of the candle symbolizing His Body.  The article explained that traditionally, the body, or at least the greater part of the body, of the candles used in the Mass and in other divine services is to be made of beeswax.¹  This is because, in their hierarchy, the bees who produce wax are females and virgins.²  There is a fittingness that female, virgin bees, should produce the wax used in the body of the candle representing Christ for out of the Blessed and Ever Virgin Mary was formed the Sacred Body of Our Lord (Gal 4:4³).

Given the importance bees have with respect to necessary adornments of the Church’s divine worship,⁴ it should not be surprising that the Roman Ritual has a special blessing for bees (apum), specifically bees whose wax will be used to make church candles.  This blessing reads, in translation,⁵ as follows:

℣. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
℟. Who made heaven and earth.
℣. The Lord be with you.
℟. And with your spirit.

Let us pray.

Lord God almighty, Who created heaven and earth, and all living things existing above them and in them for the use of mankind; and Who ordered, through the ministers of the most holy Church, that candles made from the industry of bees should be lighted in the church during the solemn mystery in which the most sacred Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, Your Son, is confected and consumed; send Your holy blessing ✠ upon these bees and these beehives, causing them to multiply and to produce and to be kept from harm, so that their yield of wax can be turned to Your honor, to that of the Son and Holy Ghost, and to the veneration of the blessed Virgin Mary; through the same Christ our Lord.

℟. Amen.

They are sprinkled with holy water.

This blessing begins with a reference to the Sixth Day of the Genesis creation account on which God granted man dominion over all the living things of the earth, of sea, and of air, including bees — “And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth.  And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat” (1:28-29; see also Ps 8:6-9 [Vulgate numbering]).   The blessing then explicitly states that God, through the authority of the Church’s hierarchy, has directed that wax candles be lit in the church building during the celebration of Mass.  In the conclusion, not only is the wax produced by the bees to be used in honoring the Blessed Trinity in the celebration of the divine services, but also to the veneration of the Blessed Virgin, a possible nod to the blessing of candles on Candlemas and to how the body of the candles, representing the Body of Christ, is made of the wax produced by female, virgin bees, which point to the Virgin herself.

Here it would not be inappropriate to note that the blessing immediately following the blessing of bees in the Ritual is the blessing for silk moths (bombycum), or, more precisely, their larvae, silkworms.  It is fitting that there is a blessing for silkworms for, just like bees, what they produce, namely silk, is also used in the Church’s divine worship.  Traditionally, the chasuble, stole, maniple, and humeral veil are to be made out of silk⁶ while the cincture, tunicle, dalmatic, cope, and also the tabernacle veil may be made out of silk.⁷  The blessing of silkworms, in translation⁸, reads as follows:

℣. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
℟. Who made heaven and earth.
℣. The Lord be with you.
℟. And with your spirit.

Let us pray.

God, Creator and Governor of all things, Who in creating living things endowed each with the power of propagating its kind; we pray that in Your kindness You would deign to ✠ bless, foster, and increase these larvae of silk moths (bombycum semina), so that Your holy altars may be adorned with the fruit of their industry, and Your faithful people, resplendent in the same, may glorify You with heartfelt praise as the Grantor of every good: Who, with Your Only-begotten Son and the Holy Ghost, live and reign forever and ever.

℟. Amen.

They are sprinkled with holy water.

Like the previous blessing, this one also references the Genesis creation account.  On the Fourth Day of the Genesis creation account, the power of generation was recognized as being granted to fish and birds — “And he blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the waters of the sea: and let the birds be multiplied upon the earth” (1:22).  While it is not explicitly stated, this same power of propagation was also granted to the living things created on the Sixth Day, namely beasts, cattle, and creeping things, among which silk moths would be counted (1:24).  This power of propagation is what is referenced at the beginning of this formula and fittingly as it is the larvae of silk moths, their offspring (semina) or newborns, which produce silk, not the adults.⁹  The blessing then asks God to bless the larvae of the silk moths for the sake of producing silk which will adorn the altar and ministers during the celebration of sacred rites, as noted in the preceding paragraph.  Even more, the prayer says that all of God’s faithful are to be clothed in silk when glorifying Him.

In his Commentary on Psalm 49 [Vulgate numbering], St. Thomas associates the wearing of silk with the renewal by grace which must necessarily mark the Christian (see 1 Cor 5:7; 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15; Eph 4:24; Col 3:10):

But all the men of the New Law sing a new song, which the new man, Christ, brought. Behold, I make all things new (Rev 21:5).  The new people sing a new song: about the Incarnation of the Lord, the Resurrection, the Ascension, the Nativity, and the other things of this kind.

So, when carrying out the solemn precepts, the ministers of the Church sing and speak clothed in white, or in silken vestments (sericis ornamentis), since no one may presume to sing a new canticle unless made new.

Perhaps newness is symbolized by silk as silk comes from the newest members of the silk moth family.  Or perhaps it is because the silkworms produce the silk for their cocoons in which they would transition from their current state to a new one.  For their part, it seems that the ministers wear the silken vestments to represent the newness to which all of the faithful are called.

These blessings should remind the faithful that our solicitude for the things of divine worship should know no bounds, extending even to the smallest detail, just as the Church extends her material care to the little bees and silkworms.

Rev. Cav. William Rock, FSSP, SMOCSG was ordained in the fall of 2019 and was invested as an Ecclesiastical Knight of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George in the summer of 2025.  He currently resides at the FSSP Canonical House of St. Casimir in Nashua, NH, and ministers at St. Stanislaus parish.

In support of the causes of Blessed Maria Cristina, Queen, and Servant of God Francesco II, King 

1. See Matters Liturgical [1959], n. 154.
2. About Honey Bees – Types, Races, and Anatomy from the University of Arkansas System, Division of Agriculture.
3. Ott, Ludwig. Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma. Baronius Press, 2018, p. 155.
4. See Matters Liturgical [1959], nn. 154-155
5. Rituale Romanum [1957], Titulus IX – Caput 5, 6; English adapted from the Weller translation provided online by EWTN (2, IV, 5).
6. See Matters Liturgical [1959], nn. 123.b, 124.b, 128.b, 130.b.
7. See Matters Liturgical [1959], nn. 122.b, 125.b, 129.b, 148.b.
8. Rituale Romanum [1957], Titulus IX – Caput 5, 7; English adapted from the Weller translation provided online by EWTN (2, IV, 6).
9. Sericulture | Silk Production & Benefits of Silk Farming | Britannica