Monks and nuns make time for prayer - and business

Chantelle, France

AFTER prayers at the Chantelle Abbey in Allier, central France, a marketing meeting between the abbey's nuns and their employees discusses the latest orders for its on-site soap and cosmetics products, the delivery destination: Germany.

The community of Benedictine sisters has been manufacturing cosmetics since 1954, after two sisters, a chemist and a mathematician, began the practice.

Body lotions, shower gels and moisturisers are among the products made in the abbey's own laboratory, where the nuns acknowledge they must now make time for prayer and business.

"A company, must develop or it dies," said Mother Pascale, dressed in a veil and scapular while supervising production.

"We have needed to develop, to make more turnover and to modernise our clientele," she added, sounding more business executive than spiritual leader.…