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The Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration offer the whole of their lives to the Lord. By combining deep prayer, Eucharistic devotion, and humble daily service, these religious sisters live out their calling to love God and others with a spirit of faithfulness and joy.
One of the sisters, Sr. Cathleen Timberlake (also known affectionately as the “Soap Sister”), has offered up the work of her hands for nearly twenty years by crafting home-made, all-natural soaps. But it’s the not-so-secret ingredients of prayer, love, and a bit of holy water that have made these soaps so beloved by her customers.
By selling these soaps, the sisters are able to support their Benedictine community as well as give others a small token of delight and joy.
As a religious order, they rely on both donations and money earned from the humble work of their hands, including the selling of their soaps, to provide for the needs of the community. While their soap was regionally popular, there was certainly an opportunity to grow an awareness of the sisters and their beautifully crafted products. By getting the word out on these “holy soaps,” the sisters could sustain and foster the health of their community as well as bless more people with the fruits of their labors.
Once we learned of their story and needs, we knew we had to get these joyfully-crafted soaps in front of as many people as possible. We knew Catholics all over the world would love to support the Benedictine sisters’ beautiful commitment to prayer, service, and love—they just needed someone to help get the word out!
We placed our first order of soaps (of many) from the sisters for resale and promoted them on our retail platform, CedarHouse.co. Because the website provides an engaging and intuitive shopping experience, visitors could now easily find and purchase the sisters’ various soap products.
Since people visit the Cedar House website from all over the globe, the sisters had an immediate boost in visibility—both of their religious order and the wonderful soap products they offer.
Moreover, we always encourage our customers to also connect directly with the organizations we promote. This would give the Benedictine sisters another avenue for receiving generous financial and prayerful support for their important mission. Plus, more people are discovering the beauty of the sisters’ monastic life!
Meeting the folks behind Cedar House has been a literal ‘match made in Heaven.’ My hope in starting our monastery’s personal care business 20 years ago was that people would come to know the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. The volume of business that has been created between us is a constant source of blessing for us both and the realization of my dreams. The Lord brought together two businesses that are centered on Jesus and lives dedicated to prayer. Alleluia. Thank you, Steven and Veronica, and all with whom we work with at Cedar House!
Sister Cathleen Timberlake
Once we combined the quality of the Benedictine sisters’ soaps with our targeted promotional and marketing strategies, their products became some of the most popular products on the Cedar House website.
In fact, our partnership over the last few years has led to so many sales that they had to build a loading dock so that freight trucks can load and transport their products—not bad for a group of nuns hand-making soap!
Our fruitful partnership still generates revenue that helps support and sustain the order and continues to introduce others to their important mission in the Church today.