On June 28, 2021, I posted an article at NLM entitled “Piously
Discarding Blessed Wax: A Quodlibetal Question,” and presented a few
viewpoints about what should be done with stubs and scraps from blessed
candles. May they be thrown away like other debris, or must they be melted
down, burned down, buried, or left on the earth like other blessed objects?
At the time, I offered various arguments on both sides, but then put my backing behind a response given to me by a Dominican priest and Thomist, saying that such candle bits should be treated in a special way.
After thinking about this for some time, I have come to agree with those in the comments who disputed this answer (the comments back then on NLM were of high quality; sadly, almost no one comments anymore, and I realize that is because comboxes have seen their day; yet I maintain they are more useful than social media comments because the latter are almost impossible to find after a while, whereas the comments attached to a blog post are right there where you need them).
Here is my reasoning: the wax remnants, once they are no longer a candle in form and no longer capable of serving as a candle, have lost what is required to be a candle, and so the blessing of candles does not “hold,” even as (to use a much grander example) the Real Presence ceases the moment the accidents of bread and wine are corrupted in the one who consumes them. When the species can no longer be recognized as bread and wine, no Real Presence under those species is possible. Similarly, when the species (the appearance and function) of a candle is not there, there is no candle left.
The blessing of the wax as mentioned in certain prayers is not a blessing of the material only, but of the material as formed into a certain instrument for glorifying God or honoring the saints. This is the common-sense point of view.
By the way, nothing beats the irreverence I once saw at a shrine in Greece where an employee, who seemed slightly irritated to be working there, came in every so often and simply threw out all the candles that pilgrims had lit, sometimes minutes before, to make room for new candles. There was money to be made – forget about the pious intentions of those who paid 2 Euros for a candle that would burn before the icons! Probably those candles had not been specially blessed, but it was still one of the most unedifying sights I’ve ever seen.
It seems different with objects that, though damaged, retain enough of their form to be recognizably the same thing and perhaps even partly useful for their purpose. For example, a crucifix with a broken arm, or with the corpus detached from the cross, may not be acceptable for mounting in a church or at home, but it remains a crucifix and should be discarded by burning or burying. Similarly, a rosary that has fallen apart into segments and can still be repaired should still be treated as a rosary; but when it falls apart beyond repair or when no repair is intended, it should be buried. It is quite different with wax scraps, which have no more than their bare material in common with functional candles.
Nevertheless, there is of course nothing wrong with burning the extra wax in a bonfire (it makes the fire go stronger), and if it’s beeswax, it should be recycled into new candles given the value and quality of the material.
At the time, I offered various arguments on both sides, but then put my backing behind a response given to me by a Dominican priest and Thomist, saying that such candle bits should be treated in a special way.
After thinking about this for some time, I have come to agree with those in the comments who disputed this answer (the comments back then on NLM were of high quality; sadly, almost no one comments anymore, and I realize that is because comboxes have seen their day; yet I maintain they are more useful than social media comments because the latter are almost impossible to find after a while, whereas the comments attached to a blog post are right there where you need them).
Here is my reasoning: the wax remnants, once they are no longer a candle in form and no longer capable of serving as a candle, have lost what is required to be a candle, and so the blessing of candles does not “hold,” even as (to use a much grander example) the Real Presence ceases the moment the accidents of bread and wine are corrupted in the one who consumes them. When the species can no longer be recognized as bread and wine, no Real Presence under those species is possible. Similarly, when the species (the appearance and function) of a candle is not there, there is no candle left.
The blessing of the wax as mentioned in certain prayers is not a blessing of the material only, but of the material as formed into a certain instrument for glorifying God or honoring the saints. This is the common-sense point of view.
By the way, nothing beats the irreverence I once saw at a shrine in Greece where an employee, who seemed slightly irritated to be working there, came in every so often and simply threw out all the candles that pilgrims had lit, sometimes minutes before, to make room for new candles. There was money to be made – forget about the pious intentions of those who paid 2 Euros for a candle that would burn before the icons! Probably those candles had not been specially blessed, but it was still one of the most unedifying sights I’ve ever seen.
It seems different with objects that, though damaged, retain enough of their form to be recognizably the same thing and perhaps even partly useful for their purpose. For example, a crucifix with a broken arm, or with the corpus detached from the cross, may not be acceptable for mounting in a church or at home, but it remains a crucifix and should be discarded by burning or burying. Similarly, a rosary that has fallen apart into segments and can still be repaired should still be treated as a rosary; but when it falls apart beyond repair or when no repair is intended, it should be buried. It is quite different with wax scraps, which have no more than their bare material in common with functional candles.
Nevertheless, there is of course nothing wrong with burning the extra wax in a bonfire (it makes the fire go stronger), and if it’s beeswax, it should be recycled into new candles given the value and quality of the material.
