Mary Simon, a 93-year-old parishioner at St. Helen Church in Glasgow, Ky., has laundered the parish’s altar linens for 43 years.
She began when her pastor approached her in 1982, she said in a recent interview. At the time, she was a stay-at-home mother of five. Four decades later, she is homebound, but continues to serve in the ministry with the help of a friend who brings the linens to her home.
“I’ve done laundry all these years, so the washer and dryer are my friends, you could say,” she said.
Simon is one of dozens of Catholics across the archdiocese who volunteer their time to the altar linen ministry of their parish.
What are altar linens?
Altar linens — as the name implies — are the linens used on the altar for the celebration of Mass.
They are a necessary element of the eucharistic celebration, according to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, which states that at least one cloth is to cover the altar for the celebration of the Eucharist (paragraph 304). The other linens used in the eucharistic celebration are the corporal and the purificator.
The corporal is the cloth placed on top of the altar cloth, on which the chalice and paten rest. The purificator is the cloth used to purify the chalice.
Corporals and purificators are laundered after each Mass, whereas the larger cloth covering the altar can be used for multiple Masses.
Some volunteers who launder the altar cloth, corporals and purificators also launder albs and vestments, worn by clergy and altar servers.
Caring for altar linens
Volunteers typically pick up used altar linens on Sundays or Mondays, following the weekend liturgies. Some parishes have a team of volunteers who are assigned specific weeks to volunteer, whereas in other parishes, one or two volunteers complete the task every week.
After the linens are used at the Mass, the corporal and purificator are typically soaked to dissolve any fragments of the Eucharist that may have fallen, as well as to begin the stain removal process for any remnants of the Precious Blood on the purificators. In some parishes, sacristans begin this process after Mass, whereas other parishes rely on their altar linen volunteers to begin this process.
The water used in the soaking process can be poured into a sacrarium, a sink in the parish’s sacristy that drains directly into the ground, or into the earth, if the soaking process is completed at a parishioner’s home.
Volunteers then launder the linens, most often in their homes. Then, they iron the purificators and corporals in the folding pattern specified by their pastor.
The laundering process can take anywhere from two to four hours each week, the volunteers said in recent interviews.
Spotlight on the ministers
Joyce Kelty, like Simon, is no stranger to laundry. She’s been cleaning the St. Lawrence Church linens for more than 15 years.
The ministry was a “natural fit” for Kelty, who has done her fair share of laundry and ironing, having raised five boys.
“I’ve always enjoyed doing laundry, which, with the boys, was a good thing,” she said in a recent interview.
For Kelty, the ministry “is not any bother, or work, or problem at all,” she said in a recent interview. “I get so much enjoyment out of it.”
Hub Daugherty, who coordinates a team of 13 altar linen volunteers at Epiphany Church, began volunteering in the altar linen ministry in the 1990s.
Getting involved was a way of following in the footsteps of her mother, who started the ministry when the parish opened in 1971, she said in a recent interview.
The ministry became a way to serve her parish while working night shifts as a nurse.
“It gives me a good feeling when I go to (weekday) Mass in the mornings — that I’ve contributed something towards the Mass being celebrated. I have a great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and I feel like it’s giving back to him a little bit.”
— Joyce Kelty, altar linen ministry volunteer
It was something she could do on her own time, she explained. “I could do it at 10 o’clock at night or six in the morning.”
It was also a good fit for her introverted nature, she said. “I like being in the background and getting it done.”
Maggie Cyphers, director of worship at the Cathedral of the Assumption, began laundering the parish’s linens in 1993.
She was serving as the eucharistic minister coordinator for the parish when she was asked by the then-director of worship to volunteer in the altar linen ministry until they could find a replacement, she said.
Three decades later, she’s still waiting to be told that they’ve found someone, she said with a laugh.
In the last decade, a washer and dryer, as well as a steam press, have been donated to the cathedral, making the process easier for Cyphers, who often presses the linens during the cathedral’s Sunday Masses.
Several volunteers noted that being involved in the ministry has strengthened their spiritual lives.
The ministry offers an opportunity for prayerful reflection, Daugherty said. “It makes you really pause and think about what the Eucharist is. It reminds you why it’s important to have it in your life.”
For Kelty, the ministry is a way to give back to God, she said.
“It gives me a good feeling when I go to (weekday) Mass in the mornings — that I’ve contributed something towards the Mass being celebrated,” she said. “I have a great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and I feel like it’s giving back to him a little bit.”
Similarly, Simon said she feels “so close to God” as she volunteers for the ministry. “And when you do something for the Lord, he never forgets what you have done for him,” she added.
“It’s something I can do even though I’m homebound. … I would like people to understand that no one is ever too old to volunteer. I feel like I’m doing something to honor the Lord when I continue doing this, and I want to,” she said, with emotion in her voice.
