Roseville — Tony Bellomo became involved in candle making nearly by accident.

“When my son, Ben, was in college years ago, he was making candles,” said Bellomo, the founder and designer of A.J. Bellomo Studios & Black Forest Building Company in Roseville. “My cousin who was really active at Sacred Heart Parish in Roseville asked Ben to make the paschal candle that year.”

Bellomo said that at the last minute, his son called from college and said, “Dad, I don’t have time to make a candle, will you?”

Without ever having made a candle before, Bellomo ventured into the experience and made the candle from scratch, which included weaving an extra-long wick for the large structure.

“During the Easter liturgy my prayer was ‘please don’t burn out!’” remembers Bellomo, but the candle was a success. He began making candles from that point on — in addition to his other projects that involve church art and architecture.

Bellomo now provides paschal candles through Root Candle, based in Medina, Ohio, but also has a unique take on making them for local Metro Detroit parishes.



Befriending Fr. David Preuss, OFM Cap., pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Newport from 1987-2008, Bellomo got the idea to involve the parish community in art-related faith projects.

Together, they decided to involve catechumens and candidates in RCIA in making the new paschal candle for their parishes’ Easter vigils — when those individuals would enter the Catholic Church.

“It’s a great, fun idea that reinforces our spirituality,” said Bellomo, who incorporates time for prayer and reflection in the candle-making workshops in his studio.

His most recent candle-making workshop was April 8, as Bellomo worked with the RCIA members of St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in St. Clair Shores.

With the coordinated guidance of adult faith formation director Cindy Powers and pastor Fr. Ronald DeHondt, Bellomo demonstrated how to decorate their parish’s paschal candle using wax images the RCIA members had designed themselves. He also showed how to rub gold foil on the candle to leave a golden finish, and explained the importance of the candle, which would be present in the church throughout the liturgical year.

“By involving the community, it allows me to reinforce my own faith,” Bellomo said.

Dan McAfee, worship director for the Archdiocese of Detroit, said no one knows for certain where or how the tradition of the paschal candle began.

“By the fourth century it was already an established practice,” McAfee said. He explained that a deacon had written to St. Jerome asking for help with writing the “exultet,” or Easter Proclamation, which is the ancient hymn sung while lighting the paschal candle at the Easter Vigil.

McAfee said the tradition “probably grew out of the lighting of the candles at vespers. The lit candle always represented Christ’s light.”

The medieval Church would use the paschal candle through the feast of the Ascension, and today, it is kept through the 50 days of the Easter season until Pentecost, McAfee said. But in the very early years, the candle would be cut apart and sent home for the faithful to use with their own candles, he added.

Bellomo has held candle-making workshops for several parishes’ RCIA programs, including St. Ephrem Parish in Sterling Heights and St. Daniel Parish in Clarkston.

The art form has become “subservient to the prayer” as the workshops have grown increasingly more focused on seeing the candle-making as a spiritual experience.

“This has certainly made my understanding of the walk you take with Christ much, much deeper,” he said, “as an artist, a teacher and a Catholic.”