Contact: Ian Rutherford, President, Aquinas and More Catholic Goods, 719-495-7493
COLORADO SPRINGS, March 29 /Christian Newswire/ -- When Aquinas and More Catholic Goods started printing holy cards five years ago there wasn't very much demand for them. "During our busiest times we were only printing a couple of orders a week but now we are printing hundreds of orders a year," said Ian Rutherford, owner of Aquinas and More. "The demand has been growing steadily as interest in the cards for First Communions, Confirmations, Baptisms and Weddings has increased."
You can find prayer cards everywhere – tucked in an old Missal, in pews at church, in vast quantities at your local Catholic store and, increasingly, at special events.
While prayer cards in the form of wood cuts had been manufactured since the 1400's, the invention of lithography in 1796 made it possible to print detailed paper prints in large quantities. The Benziger Brothers, based in Switzerland, were some of the first to print holy cards in large quantities. These typically had the image of a saint on one side and a prayer to the saint on the other.
In the past, personalized cards – ones with printing on the back commemorating a special event – were generally confined to ordinations and funerals because the cost was too high and frequently it wasn't possible to find a printer willing to print in small quantities. With modern technology it is now possible to get professional quality prayer cards in small quantities at a very reasonable cost.
Ordering prayer cards is very simple. The website offers dozens of designs to choose from and a form that works just like a word processor so a customer can type in the text, format it and even add color. "We wanted to make the whole process as simple as possible," said Rutherford. "When the customer is finished creating the card, they can see exactly what the end result will look like. We even have some standard prayers that they can select from and edit on the screen. There are other personalized prayer card suppliers on-line but none of them offers the customer full control over the finished product."
Personalized prayer cards can be ordered at any time of the year for any event but customers need to plan ahead as cards can take up to three weeks to print.
For more information, please visit www.aquinasandmore.com/personalizedprayercards.htm
