July 2, 2010
St. Meinrad launches eco-friendly ‘Snail’s Pace’
More information can be found at:
Facebook: facebook.com/snailspacepaper
Twitter: www.twitter.com/snailspacepaper
YouTube: www.youtube.com/SnailsPaper
Blog: snailspacepaper.wordpress.com
The Benedictine monks at St. Meinrad Archabbey in southern Indiana are introducing Snail’s Pace, a new business venture at Abbey Press. The company will produce a variety of environmentally and socially responsible paper goods. With this new venture, the monks will renew their roots in the printing industry, which dates back to 1867.
The Snail’s Pace product line will feature greeting and note cards, recipe cards, journals, gift wrap and gift bags. In-cluded among the designs are re-creations of flowers from Switzerland’s Alpine region, inspired by imagery found in the Archabbey Library’s Rare Book Room.
Local artist and Snail’s Pace designer Ashley Verkamp has managed to beautifully incorporate these traditional Alpine flower designs with modern colors, imagery and phrases. Other featured images include nature photography from Swiss photographer Liliane Géraud, as well as some of Ashley’s own illustrations.
The mission behind Snail’s Pace is reflected in its name: inviting the public to slow down and find balance in today’s world of high-speed communication by recapturing the timeless act of putting pen to paper. The brand also manifests the Benedictine tradition and history of care and concern for the environment, and will use only paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and soy-based inks.
St. Meinrad Archabbot, Benedictine Father Justin DuVall, spoke recently about this tradition, saying “It isn’t just nature, it is creation. It is the gift of God to us. We have to be responsible for that gift. And so, it isn’t something that is given to us to use and not be concerned about. In a real way, by responding to the ecological concerns, we see ourselves as continually cooperating with God and the gift of creation.”
The Snail’s Pace brand is making its public debut through social media channels — like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and a blog — before its official product launch this fall. Archabbot Justin notes that, “We’re 21st century men; we have to live in the times in which we live. That gives us an opportunity to partake in a lot of the technological advances that further the work we are engaged in. We would not shun things that are modern because they’re modern — we try and apply the core values of our monastic life to whatever kinds of media that we would encounter.”
The products will be sold online and through fundraising within Catholic schools and churches.