Correspondence cards. Monastic shopping.

Monastery shops aren't always what first comes to mind for online purchasing, but it's worth thinking of them if you are looking for candles or soap or correspondence cards. 

Buckfast Abbey in Devon has an excellent on-the-premises shop stocking wonderful products from monasteries all over Europe, but maybe you aren't anywhere near Devon. They have an online shop too, but with very limited stock.

Prinknash Abbey shop is fab (here), and they sell their lovely incense, but I think it's another one where you have to actually go there. For people not in the UK, "Prinknash" is one of those weird English words that isn't said how it's written. You say it more like "Prinnitch".

I used to buy the most wonderful bathroom things — soap, shampoo etc — from the Abbazia di Praglia, all made in European abbeys and convents; but sadly they stopped shipping to the UK after Brexit. Understandable but sad.

Something I always like to have in stock at home is correspondence cards. I have a stash from St Hughs Parkminster (where my Carthusian friends are), but of course their own cards aren't the ideal choice if I actually need to write to them, which I do at the moment because I think they've tightened up their internet discipline as the procurator seems to have gone into radio silence. 

The online shops of monasteries mostly sell things they make themselves, and the products can be a little more idiosyncratic than I had in mind, or super-religious which isn't always what I want.

Searching around online to see who was selling what, I came across the shop of the Carmelites at Quidenham in Norfolk, and they make really lovely cards at startlingly low prices. The normal-sized ones are a pound and the little prayer cards are only 35p. They sell handicraft things they've made, plus soaps and balms as well — here. Shipping costs are modest and despatch is prompt. The cards themselves are very high quality. Here are the ones I bought:

If you are in America or Australia, of course you'll have alternative sources of your own. Let us know in the comments if there's any you especially recommend.